Sprint Nextel and Google join forces in wireless deal

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Reston-based Sprint Nextel Corp. has partnered with Google Inc. to enhance the WiMAX network, a wireless broadband technology still in development by Sprint Nextel.

The deal will allow network users to access a suite of services from Google — including Web search, local search, e-mail, messaging, calendar and contacts — on the Sprint Nextel portal.

“Both companies are very excited to take this step together,” said Peter Cannistra, director of strategic partnerships for Sprint Nextel’s fourth generation (4G) wireless broadband business unit.

“Google and Sprint have a very similar vision for the Internet in the future,” with “broadband speeds in lots of different devices available to anyone anywhere they are,” Cannistra told The Examiner.

The Washington and Baltimore metro areas will be two of the first markets in which the WiMax service will be tested. Right now the testing period is set for the end of 2007 and the target date for a commercial rollout is April 2008.

With speeds three to five times faster than current available networks, WiMAX will be “Wi-Fi on steroids,” Cannistra said.

wblake@dcexaminer.com