Sprint's Xohm: No contracts, no subsidies

Given the descriptions of Sprint's Xohm demos that we've been hearing, it sure seems like the company's forthcoming WiMAX service is going to be in a league of its own. If Sprint makes good on its promises, however, Xohm just might distinguish itself from the competition in a number of other ways. First off, Sprint has announced that it is eschewing the usual service contract/subsidy model with Xohm: the service will be provided sans contract, though devices will not be subsidized. What's more, the Xohm network will be open to any and all devices, not just Sprint-branded gear--including digital audio players, cameras and just about anything else you can think of. Boy, this is really starting to sound like a mobile version of a traditional broadband service, eh? As if to drive that point home, the company has stated that it plans to price Xohm competitively in relation to traditional DSL and cable services, though it stopped short of announcing actual pricing. From the sounds of it, Xohm is really pushing to set itself apart from the existing wireless networks--let's just hope that device manufacturers decide to embed those WiMAX chipsets.

For more on Xohm:
- see this article from tgdaily