Sure, $2 trillion in retirement investments has disappeared. Sure, the International Monetary Fund says we’re headed for a “deep recession.” Sure, the credit markets remain frozen. But the wireless side of the telecom industry has little to fear, being an indispensable technology in people’s lives.
That was the message from Sprint-Nextel Corp. CEO Dan Hesse on Wednesday at a coming-out party the carrier threw for itself to celebrate the turning up of the Xohm wireless broadband network in Baltimore — the first market to go live on the carrier’s WiMAX 4G infrastructure.
“I don't want to lead you to believe that the economy will have no impact," he said, but echoed the recent conventional wisdom that people aren’t about to turn their backs on wireless: "People would rather give up TV or Internet before the cell phone."
Hesse went on to explain that perhaps pricing might need to be revised, but that wireless would certainly continue to draw demand.
In Baltimore the carrier put on demonstrations of the WiMAX network and showed off a range of embedded WiMAX devices enabling 2mbps to 4mbps downloads. Laptop manufacturers Lenovo, Acer, Asus and Toshiba said they plan to launch embedded WiMAX devices by the end of the year, while Dell, Panasonic and Sony said they would catch up in 2009.
