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The timetable for the Sprint-Clearwire WiMax deployment dropped down to roughly 90 days, as a Sprint executive over the WiMax operations declared the service on track for a September debut.

Telecoms.com cited remarks by Barry West, Sprint Nextel CTO and president of Xohm, at the WiMAX Forum Global Congress in Amsterdam. Commercial WiMax service will start in Baltimore, said West.

Originally planned for an April '08 release, Sprint's problems with backhaul capacity caused the delay. West said those problems have been resolved.

They also worked out issues with the back-end customer service and management infrastructure. "We can now activate a device over the air under five minutes and set up a billing relationship with the customer," said West.

That aspect of WiMax will be vastly different than conventional wireless, as customers will purchase non-subsidized devices before establishing a relationship with Sprint for WiMax service. Supporting them will be more than 575 WiMax base stations; a Nokia tablet, a Samsung AirCard, Intel laptop chipsets, and other hardware will represent the available devices when WiMax launches in September.