The cell sites are built, but backhauling the data causes back up, says Sprint CTO

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Sprint’s commercial launch of Xohm is being held up by problems in provisioning backhaul and, to a lesser extent, in implementing its unique customer management and billing system, Xohm President and Sprint Chief Technology Officer Barry West said today.

At an interview at the Wireless Communications Association’s conference here, West said the initial footprint of cell sites in Chicago, Baltimore and Washington have been built, but finding high-capacity transport links to connect them has been harder than he originally thought. The typical T-1 lines that feed cellular sites won’t cut it for Sprint’s WiMAX rollout, West said: The WiMAX access points Sprint is deploying are pumping out 30 Mb/s to 40 Mb/s of capacity, which can not be transported with a few 1.5 Mb/s copper lines.

West said in order to build the network, Sprint is provisioning fiber lines wherever economically feasible. Where it’s not, Sprint is relying on microwave, either through wireless backhaul middleman FiberTower or building its own microwave links with Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent equipment. But the process is much slower than Sprint originally forecast, West said, causing Sprint’s stated goal of a second-quarter launch and West’s own target of live commercial launch in April to be delayed.

“Clearly I wanted to hit the April date,” West said. “Having missed that date, I want to make sure we come out with a robust service. Right now I’m building sites.”

Implementing Amdocs’ billing and customer provisioning system has caused delays, but only by a matter of weeks, West said. The new Xohm business model requires a new self-provisioning system that allows customers to sign up for service through the network, much like Wi-Fi users sign-up for immediate service at hotspots. The bugs have been worked out, though, and the new billing system is in place, West said. Additionally, the WiMAX infrastructure has passed Sprint’s muster, and Sprint is receiving base station gear in volumes from Samsung and Motorola—which are building the East Coast and Midwest networks, respectively. Sprint also has plenty of customer premise equipment from its device vendors, ranging from laptop cards to desktop gateways to Nokia’s new Internet tablet. The primary complication delaying the launch, West stressed, is the backhaul issue.

Sprint was expected to unveil the new 4G service under the spectacle of CTIA Wireless at the beginning of the month, but revealed instead further delays. The first networks went live right after Christmas in Chicago, D.C. and Baltimore as a controlled, employee-only trial, but Sprint is not naming any new date for the commercial launch in those three markets, saying only they will go live by the end of the year.

The big question is whether Sprint will launch the network solo or if it will team up with partners. West would not address the possibility of revisiting its aborted tie-up with fellow WiMAX operator Clearwire or the possibility of additional investors, saying he would not comment on rumors. Sprint has indicated it is looking for additional partners to share the cost of the massive WiMAX undertaking, but it has not named the specific companies with which it is negotiating.

During his keynote at WCA, West also took on WiMAX detractors and Sprint’s competitors. As competing 4G technology Long Term Evolution (LTE) gains momentum, traditional cellular operators have begun attacking Sprint’s technology, saying that WiMAX will only serve to fragment the market and rekindle the technology wars of the last decade. At CTIA Wireless and at the Mobile World Congress, Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin essentially called for WiMAX proponents to throw in the towel and align their network plans with LTE.

“It’s always rolling WiMAX into LTE,” West said. “Why on Earth isn’t anyone saying ‘WiMAX is here, and it works. Why don’t we roll LTE into WiMAX.”

West also touched on the 700 MHz spectrum, which Sprint’s competitors AT&T and Verizon Wireless won at auction last month and which they plan to use for their future LTE networks. 700 MHz has been called “beachfront” spectrum because of the lower frequency bands' high propagation characteristics, which would allow operators to spread their cell sites out much further apart than Sprint can with its 2.5 GHz spectrum. But West pointed out that those spaced-out cellsites won’t produce any greater capacity per channel than Sprint’s tighter footprint. If an operator plans on deploying in high-demand dense urban markets as Sprint does, they’ll need to deploy the same dense footprints as Sprint does, regardless of frequency, West said.

“I’ve heard that 700 MHz is beachfront property, but with the rising tide of demand I’d much rather be on higher ground,” West said.