Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

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Sprint Nextel may go with Qualcomm's 4G

Could pick OFDM not WiMAX

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33471

By Tony Dennis: Friday 04 August 2006, 07:44

BURIED AWAY in Sprint Nextel's latest financial results are some very interesting comments from Gary Forsee, the company's CEO. He said: "Our Board's recent approval of our 4G business case."

What 4G network? Other sources have suggested that Sprint Nextel might use, "Its large holding in the 2.5GHz frequency band to provide new 4G wireless services"

In which case the frontrunner would be WiMax. However, the INQ believes that Sprint Nextel may well be considering Qualcomm's 4G technology – OFDM.

Nextel previously tested orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technology supplied by Flarion. Yet Sprint is very firmly a cdmaOne based network.

In fact, there's no clash here because Qualcomm bought Flarion and consequently is pushing OFDM very heavily.

Another strong pointer is that OFDM is exactly what NTT DoCoMo is investigating for use as 4G. And DoCoMo was first with 3G.

The good news is that some observers think that Sprint Nextel may be ready with 4G as early as 2008.