4G handsets are already available in other parts of the world, so it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to have one for sale in the US.  Last week Sprint made it clear they’re ready to offer such a device. The devil’s always in the details of how devices and networks are actually implemented, but I’m optimistic that this could jump start the 4G market. If it does, it just may provide more “stimulus” than all of the alleged broadband stimulus that Congress funded with the future earnings of our children last week.

The actual form factor is “still being finalized,” said Scott Lane, director of marketing and sales for Sprint’s 4G unit, in an interview today.

Lane called the coming device a “trimode handset,” meaning it would function in three wireless modes. Including WiMax and CDMA, the third mode will most likely be Wi-Fi, although that piece has not been confirmed. “It will more than likely have Wi-Fi,” he added.

The WiMax portion could make the device the first stand-alone handset with WiMax capability. It will work over Clearwire Corp.’s Clear WiMax network, which Sprint helped create last year in an ambitious joint venture with Clearwire, Intel Corp., Google Inc. and three cable companies.

WiMAX handsets are coming. Get used to it AT&T, Verzion, TMobile and Sprint. The only unknown is if the embedded cellular cartel will be able to succeed in killing WiMAX before it take hold in the US. Even if WiMAX fails here, these handsets will be in huge demand world wide as mobile WiMAX networks are being built almost everywhere.

Santa Barbara-based D2 Technologies, a developer of embedded communications software for the VoIP market, announced Monday that the firm is showing a new reference design for WiMAX mobile phones. The firm said the new design allows manufacturers to quickly develop and deliver WiMAX handsets and other portable devices.(socialTECH)

The Clearwire half of the Sprint / Clearwire Merger has activated its first citywide Mobile WiMAX network in Portland. With two cities done there’s still 70-80 to go before the major markets are covered. Maybe Samsung will actually start selling mobile MiMAX devices like those pictured  in the US some day.

Today, Clearwire unveiled the WiMAX network in Portland, Ore., that we covered last month. Portland is the first city to get WiMAX service under the Clear brand since Clearwire closed its WiMAX spectrum merger with Sprint last month. Portland joins Baltimore, Md., as Clearwire’s only pure WiMAX network in the country. (Gigaom)

In a significant accomplishment for a fixed wireless broadband provider, Airspan has demonsrated WiMAX’s ability to form a seamless national network utilizing multiple bands. The bandwidth Airspan is delivering to its customers wirelessly competes at speeds comparable to fixed line up to all but carrier class fiber. How mobile fits into the company’s plans is anyone’s guess, but the idea of mobile combined with almost unlimited capacity makes the future look even brighter for both Airspan and Wimax.

(Airspan) announced today that it has successfully demonstrated a unique, seamless, uninterrupted handover from one frequency band on a mobile WiMAX network to another frequency band.

A handover is the terminology used to define the seamless transfer of a wireless device from one base station to another without loss or interruption of service. A handover would be conducted when a user device is moving away from the area covered by one base station and entering the area covered by another. (Marketwatch)

First, I want to be very clear that I expect AT&T and Verizon to do a bunch of business with LTE. For the record, I’m also no fan of Sprint. I am a former cellular customer of all three and am in no hurry to do more business with any of them.

We keep seeing results of study after study first trying to marginalize WiMax until the technology was firmly established as a quickly deployable, scalable, and reliable competitor in the symmetric bandwidth business class arena. Mobile WiMAX is now getting its fair share of FUD, mostly because you’ll be able to subscribe to it in most major US cities before the LTE spec will even be finalized. I’ll even grant that this does not give mobile WiMAX a great advantage.

Some people argue that because Mobile WiMax is hitting the market sooner than LTE (which we discussed this morning), it has the potential to cement itself as the next-gen wireless broadband flavor of choice. Not so much, says a new study by IMS Research, which declares that the technology will struggle to gain traction with operators, and will ultimately remain a “niche mobile technology.” That’s a slight variation from the half-decade worth of mobile hype (largely coming from Intel) that heralded WiMax’s arrival.  (DSL Reports)

The latest FUD is all about incompatibility with what AT&T and Verizon will offer some day in the future? Sure they have most of the cellular market share. They also have a subscription based business model, with nickel and dime adds ons and all sorts of metering and limits. It’s almost certain they will roll out LTE based mobile broadband using these same business models that consumers hate. Assuming the open standard Sprint has established for mobile WiMAX is the business model for those offering service using that technology, who in their right mind would take closed and cumbersome LTE service instead? Would they buy just because Darth V and the Death star had chosen it?

I could be wrong, but I think business model will determine who wins, and the technology delivering the service is secondary. Most consumers will chose the biggest, most open pipe they can get for their money, and none will care what standard enables it or who is selling it. Until the big telcos open their networks, I’ll declare WiMAX the clear front runner.