Samsung to help Sprint Nextel bring WiMax to New York

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Samsung Electronics Co. said Monday it will work with Sprint Nextel Corp. to bring fourth-generation high speed wireless Internet to New York City.

Samsung said in a statement it was chosen by Sprint Nextel to provide infrastructure for New York, part of the Reston, Virginia-based wireless provider’s plan to launch the network in several U.S. cities based on an emerging mobile wireless technology called WiMax.

Sprint Nextel had already picked Samsung to provide infrastructure and equipment for similar networks planned for Washington, DC, Baltimore, Boston and other cities.

”New York is an important milestone for Samsung as we continue to expand the deployment of 4G technology around the world,” Choi Gee-sung, president of Samsung’s telecommunication network business, said in the statement.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Barry West, president of Sprint Nextel’s WiMax business, said the company would ”go for a commercial launch of our service starting in Washington in April of next year.”

He added that service in other cities would follow ”with New York probably in the fourth quarter of next year.”

Sprint Nextel announced a little over a year ago it would develop the network using WiMax technology, which promises fast wireless broadband connections and mobile roaming at high speeds.

Similar to the Wi-Fi technology used in airports and coffee shops, WiMax, short for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, can provide coverage to much larger areas.

Besides Samsung, U.S. companies Intel Corp., Motorola Inc. and Clearwire Corp. are cooperating with Sprint Nextel, which has operational headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas, to commercialize the technology in the United States.

Sprint Nextel and Clearwire said last month that 100 million people would have access to the service by the end of 2008.