While Verizon Wireless drew gasps and cheers when it announced plans to open up its 3G and future 4G networks last year, Sprint actually was the first U.S. carrier to articulate such a program — not for its EV-DO network, but for its forthcoming WiMAX launch. Sprint didn’t explicitly call it an open-access network, but Barry West, chief technology officer and 4G president, described just that while crisscrossing the world to tout Sprint’s new project. West laid out a plan in which any device that met certification requirements from the WiMAX Forum could be connected to the network. While Sprint would sell its own services over the new Xohm WiMAX network, other comers would be welcome. Sprint would charge merely for access.

West took the concept one step further — he divorced the device from the access itself. Xohm customers will be able to buy a subscription to the mobile broadband network and use it on whatever device or devices they prefer, in much the same way people switch SIM cards between phones on GSM networks. And if that weren’t enough, Sprint decided to play nice with the most vocal of the open access advocates out there: Google. Sprint has signed a deal with Google to provide portal and search services for its Xohm service, but most significantly it signed on for Google’s new pet wireless project, Android.

Google is making an independent operating system (OS) based on Linux that it hopes will generate a market for powerful multimedia handsets. In doing so, it is building a community of vendors, carriers and application developers called the Open Handset Alliance, which Sprint has joined. Built with a powerful browser and a modified version of Java, Android’s aim is to tap into the huge market for Internet services that so far has failed to materialize on the handset. Unstated but implied is the fact that Internet companies could use Android to go directly to the consumer, a relationship the carrier has always controlled.

“I think our message of openness is resonating very deeply in the industry,” said Rich Miner, group manager of mobile platforms for Google. “I think carriers realize that openness doesn’t mean losing control.”

For its part, Sprint doesn’t mind losing a little bit of control. As the wireless industry shifts from voice to data, the expectations placed on carriers are lessened, said Kevin Packingham, vice president of wireless product development for Sprint. “Wireless data has grown out of the telephony industry, where a close relationship with the operator was necessary,” he said. “The Internet industry is entirely different.” Quality of service (QOS) and issues of security and privacy are paramount in the voice world, but as customers use more data, they’re more willing to look to the Internet model than the wireless telephony model, Packingham added.

“It doesn’t make sense for us to re-create the Internet on the mobile phone. It’s silly of us to even try,” Packingham said. “If this group of partners is successful, people will start asking ‘Why can’t we access the same services we use at home on the phone? Why are there two separate networks?’”

Android, however, will be reserved for Sprint’s 3G network — one of many platforms Sprint will support. The WiMAX network goes far beyond those parameters. Instead of agreeing to sell and support a more open device, Xohm will swing the doors wide, allowing any service provider with any certified device using any OS. With almost every American in possession of a mobile phone, Sprint has to look toward connecting more consumer devices to the wireless network to grow the market. Instead of just providing connectivity to a phone, the WiMAX network could link laptops, digital music players, cameras and automobiles to wireless broadband. The potential for such a market is huge, but because Sprint cedes so much control to device-makers and other service providers, the possibility of Sprint becoming merely a bit pipe is just as great.

Sprint is trying to offset that possibility by providing its own set of services, which it can optimize because it owns the WiMAX network. Voice over IP and video streaming could be prioritized from a Sprint server, and location-based services tied to private customer information could be offered. But just to be safe, Sprint also is partnering with Internet companies whose applications will get the most use on the new network. Instead of trying to compete with Google on search and Internet applications, it is partnering with the company. Google’s success will mean success for Sprint.

Some mobile application companies, however, are skeptical that such a relationship will work. Dan Olschwang, CEO of mobile search company JumpTap, said Google’s partnership with Sprint is a “Trojan horse” to gain access to the network.

“They’re basically telling Sprint, ‘Build this huge WiMAX network to provide us access to our customers,’” Olschwang said. “Google has a very clear agenda: to own a big chunk of advertising dollars. On the wireline side it doesn’t share that advertising revenue with Comcast or AT&T. Why would it share it with the wireless operators?”

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