WiMAX Phone From Sprint Expected At CTIA

Sprint is expected to unveil a WiMAX phone from HTC at the CTIA trade show next week. According to analysts, Sprint will show off the first WiMAX phone for its network on March 23 at the annual CTIA show. Previously, Sprint promised a WiMAX phone for sometime this year, but the carrier has not announced a launch date.

The rumored phone would support WiMAX as well as Sprint's existing CDMA network. The WiMAX network is a joint venture between Clearwire and Sprint.

"Our checks indicate that Sprint will launch a CDMA/WiMAX handset at CTIA called the HTC Supersonic," Macquarie analyst Philip Cusick said in a research note.



Avi Greengart from Current Analysis also expects to see a device announcement at the show: "Sprint is going to announce their device plans for WiMAX," he said, "I'm hoping to see some actual phones."

Greengart also predicts that AT&T will use the CTIA show to reveal which Palm phones it will support. (AT&T announced in January that it would offer new Palm phones in the first half of this year.) Considering Palm has struggled with weak sales, an announcement from AT&T would be a big deal. "Palm certainly needs all the distribution it can get," Greengart said.