Sprint says its 4G service is improving apps that ran adequately at 3G speeds while opening up previously unattainable possibilities for businesses and organizations as diverse as a Chicago food bank and the Portland, Oregon Police Bureau.
Non-profits don’t often push the envelope with technology: They typically can’t afford
to. But the Greater Chicago Food Depository, the city’s food bank, was an early adopter
of Sprint 4G, the cellular company’s WiMAX broadband wireless service.
Sprint is rolling out the service to major centers across the U.S. in partnership with
Clearwire, with which it merged its 4G operations in 2008. The two companies use 802.16e
mobile WiMAX technology in the licensed 2.5 MHz band. They were in 27 markets as of late
February, including New York, Houston, Boston and Washington, D.C.
The Food Depository was an early customer in Chicago a year ago. It has now equipped
14 of its laptop-toting mobile workers with Sprint 4G cards, which deliver average
download speeds of between 3 and 4 megabits per second (Mbps), according to third-party
reports.
Read “Sprint Touts the 4G Advantage” at Wi-Fi Planet
