SPRINT CEO PREDICTS 140M POTENTIAL WiMAX USERS BY 2010

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse recently predicted that, by the year 2010, there will be 140 million potential users of the high-speed WiMax cellular service. The Sprint-constructed system was launched in Baltimore earlier this year, and there are plans to deploy it in Dallas, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., pending regulatory approval. WiMax will dramatically accelerate the Internet capabilities of wireless devices, causing them to continue to operate more and more like handheld computers. Meanwhile, Hesse continues to express optimism regarding Sprint’s ability to remain viable in a tough economy. He said that, five or ten years ago, folks might have been more likely to cancel cell service because it was viewed as more of a luxury. Today, it’s a necessity. “We have more money coming in than going out,” he said. “As long as that’s the case, we’ll be OK.” Sprint is the official telecommunications partner of PFT. And because Sprint has long been a major sponsor of the sports that we follow, we think that every football fan should get himself (or herself) a Sprint or Nextel phone.