Although the company has already named its major cell site infrastructure vendors for the deployment -- Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp., and Samsung Corp. -- Shen says that the operator has been making "some inquiries" about WiMax "pico cells and micro cells" for in-building applications.

 

"We need to make sure we can address specific markets with WiMax," says Shen. As well as corporate in-building and campus deployments, these could include shopping malls and conference centers. To this end, the operator is examining a number of WiFi options -- from small cells that link to the Internet over Ethernet cable to more standard cellular-style distributed antenna systems.

 

"It depends on the situation," says Shen. "There is no kind of uniform way that we can do this." It is clear that if Sprint gets close to some of its indoor WiMax aims, the technology could become more of a threat to large-scale WiFi deployments than it has been before.

 

Shen says the operator wants WiMax in-building systems that are "as cheap as the WiFi solution." Sprint isn't saying yet who some of its suppliers might be for its varied mini-WiMax requirements. "We can't disclose that," Shen says. There are, however, a diverse collection of vendors working on smaller WiMax networking gear.

 

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