Speaking at the fall 2011 Comptel Plus Conference on the topic of emerging technologies, Todd Rowley, vice president of 4G and business development at Sprint, said Sprint's enhanced 4G wireless isn't just for mobile devices. It can also be used as an "alternative to existing T-1 or smaller circuits" and, in fact, ranging in use between 3Mbps to 6Mbps, this 4G wireless service would be faster than a T-1 line is today at 1.5Mbps.

ANALYSIS:

The use of 4G wireless as a T-1 replacement is among "a few of the wireless replacement options we're developing," said Rowley. He said this is now being trialed by some Sprint customers in the retail sector, and Sprint is finalizing how it could work with its wholesale business customers, basically resellers, to be able to sell this as a service.

Rowley said the Sprint 4G wireless as T-1 replacement works through use of an antenna-based network device simply called the "outdoor unit" (ODU) made by for the purpose.

The Cisco ODU device, positioned on the roof or side of a building, is an Ethernet or MPLS connection point for the corporate network of the enterprise customer. The Cisco ODU can establish a secure and managed wireless connection from there to the nearest Sprint cell tower. One idea in all this is that Sprint's 3G wireless acts as a backup.