Sprint previews Xohm WiMAX in Windy City

During the past few months, we've been hearing a whole lot of noise from Sprint about their upcoming Xohm WiMAX service. But you know what they say: talk is cheap. That's why it's encouraging to see Sprint demonstrating their WiMAX technology, in advance of the wide-scale deployments that they've planned for next year. Ars Technica attended a controlled Xohm demonstration in Chicago last night and based on their review, they seem pretty impressed. Riding on the Chicago River in one of the city's ubiquitous tourist boats, Ars was allowed to test a microcosm of Sprint's WiMAX network, consisting of four separate towers, spaced out over a stretch of just under a mile of riverfront. According to Ars, "There were 12 laptops and tablet PCs along with a handful of WiMAX-enabled cell phones simultaneously using the network to stream data, video, and voice with an eye towards proving that WiMAX has what it takes both in terms of speed and its ability to seamlessly hand clients off between towers throughout the network."

So, how did it perform? Apparently websites "loaded quickly and seemed very snappy" while streaming video displayed "no dropped frames or hiccups of any kind." Overall, Ars described the 4G service as being "far superior to Verizon's EV-DO service." "Unlike other wireless services, which feel 'laggy' and offer a markedly different experience than a wired connection, the WiMAX demo was more akin to DSL and cable." While it's worth keeping in mind that the network tested was a controlled deployment, given some of the previous, disastrous WiMAX tests that we've seen, I'd say that this service is looking just about ready for market.

For more on the demo:
- see this Ars Technica report