Interest in Wi-Fi technology surged again last week as Sprint PCS announced it will begin offering a Wi-Fi solution later this summer that initially will provide its customers with access to high-speed Internet services in more than 800 locations across the country and plans for more than 2,100 hot spot locations by the end of this year.
Sprint PCS said the service will be available in airports, convention centers and hotels through a combination of hot spots built and managed by the carrier and through roaming agreements with hot-spot aggregators.
“Sprint is leveraging its core strengths as a fully integrated wireline and wireless communications provider to support the growing needs of our customers with a proven approach to deploy private and public wireless LANs,” said Mark Bowser, senior vice president of sales for Sprint Business.
Sprint PCS said its initial Wi-Fi deployment, which is expected during the third quarter, will leverage agreements with Wi-Fi aggregator Wayport Inc. and software provider Airpath Wireless Inc., but the carrier plans to build a number of the proposed hot spots itself as an extension of its current Wi-Fi portfolio that has focused primarily on assisting enterprise customers deploy Wi-Fi solutions in office buildings, corporate campuses and branch offices.
Wayport has become a favorite of wireless operators, having signed similar roaming agreements with AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Verizon Wireless and was part of McDonald’s Corp.’s recent expansion of Wi-Fi offerings in 75 restaurants in California. Wayport said it provides wired and wireless Internet access in more than 565 major hotels around the world and in eight airports across the country. It announced last month it had surpassed the 2.5 million mark for customer connections.
Sprint PCS also said it was in discussions with AT&T Wireless, which launched its GoPort Wi-Fi service earlier this year, to allow customers to roam between each other’s Wi-Fi offerings. Both carriers have announced support for open roaming between Wi-Fi networks.
“We firmly believe in a Wi-Fi roaming model,” said Suzanne Lammers, spokeswoman for Sprint PCS. “It’s the only way for Wi-Fi to be successful.”
Most industry analysts have voiced similar support for open roaming models, noting the importance of allowing customers to access Wi-Fi networks wherever they are available, and equating the potential success of Wi-Fi services to the early days of cellular, when consumer adoption spiked once carriers began signing roaming agreements.
In contrast, T-Mobile USA Inc., which operates the largest Wi-Fi network in the country, and Cometa Networks are keeping their networks private and have not announced any plans to allow roaming onto their hot-spot locations.
“T-Mobile has not been open to roaming, which we think will limit adoption,” Lammers said.
Sprint PCS explained one of its key differentiators from existing Wi-Fi solutions will be its PCS Connection Manager Software, which was designed to enable customers to detect compatible Wi-Fi Zones and access a directory of compatible locations that is kept current through over-the-air updates.
In addition to being available separately, Sprint PCS said the connection software will be included with the AirPrime PC3200 PCS Connection Card designed for the carrier’s wide area network, though customers will have to use a separate Wi-Fi card to access the local area network.
Sprint PCS did not release pricing information for the service, but noted customers initially will be able to subscribe to the service using their credit cards and plans to integrate charges into customers’ monthly voice bills later this year.
Despite the Wi-Fi announcement, Sprint PCS has not abandoned its CDMA2000 1x-based wide area network, signing a $1 billion deal last week with Lucent Technologies Inc. to provide enhancements to the carrier’s network.
“We definitely see Wi-Fi as a complement to our nationwide 3G network,” Lammers added.
Analysts seemed unfazed by Sprint PCS’ announcement, noting the deal would have a greater impact on the companies providing the infrastructure for the venture than on the wireless service industry.
“The service is a largely defensive offering, with primary coverage provided by Wayport, management by Airpath and eventual integrated billing with Sprint’s other wireless services,” said Scott Miller, principal analyst at ARS Inc. “This is certainly the right model if you plan to get a quick start on the market, but with four of the top five domestic wireless carriers already having similar offerings, Sprint PCS is doing little to distinguish itself.”
Miller did note the move should bolster Sprint PCS’ recent focus on marketing to the business market and shores up the carrier’s service offerings prior to the implementation of wireless local number portability, which is scheduled for later this year.
