Sprint-Nextel invests £1.25bn in Wimax service

US mobile phone company Sprint Nextel expects to invest approximately £1.25bn in capital for Wimax through year-end 2008. Its Wimax service will be marketed under the Xohm brand and a trial network is expected to go live in the US by the end of 2007. It also announced a partnership with Google to bring its search tools to mobile Wimax applications.

The wireless carrier is spending £1.25bn through next year to build a Wimax network it hopes will differentiate itself and bring in new business worth approximately £2.5bn by 2011.

Barry West, who heads the Wimax business, said the partners have committed to putting out 50 million devices, from cell phones to laptops with Wimax chips.