"I just received an email from Sprint that 4G (WiMAX) is now available in Chi-town," Chicago resident and Broadband Reports reader bshelly writes in. "I also checked the Clear.com website and confirmed that Chicago is indeed live and orderable." Chicago isn't the only new market on tap this week.

After officially launching service in Philadelphia late last week, Sprint has also launched service this week in Dallas/Fort Worth and the North Carolina cities of Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary, Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point. Users alert us to the fact that Clearwire has also "soft-launched" in both Austin and San Antonio, though those markets won't officially go live until November 1.

As in other 4G Mobile WiMax launch markets, Sprint is offering users dual access to their EVDO and Mobile WiMax service for $70 a month, though you'll need their 3G/4G U300 USB Modem. For the time being Sprint's 4G service is uncapped, unlike their 3G service which comes with a 5GB monthly cap.

Sprint Nextel unveiled their first quarter earnings this morning, which indicate the carrier is still struggling with the massive customer defections that have plagued the carrier since their troubled acquisition of Nextel. According to Sprint, the company lost 182,000 net subscribers, thanks to additions from Boost Mobile and their partnership with Amazon for the Amazon Kindle. That said, the company still lost 1.25 million "postpaid" customers to competitors like AT&T and Verizon, suggesting that the company's customer service issues aren't yet behind them. Sprint posted a net loss of $594 million, up from $505 million a year ago, while revenue fell 12% to $8.21 billion.

While Sprint's new XOHM mobile WiMax is officially only commercially available in Baltimore, reports suggest that looming launch market networks (Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Northern Virginia) are now live, though only in a testing capacity and not technically taking customers yet. DC and Chicago are supposed to be the next markets that come online, with the remainder scheduled to go live before the end of the year. On Wednesday, Sprint plans a marketing extravaganza in Baltimore officially heralding the new service's arrival.

Last week a tipster alerted us to the fact that Sprint would be unveiling their pricing and packages for their Xohm mobile WiMax service this Friday on the company's website, with a real Baltimore "launch" October 6. It now appears those fireworks will be two days later.

A tipster tells us that Sprint's mobile WiMax Xohm service should be launched in the Baltimore market on October 6. Xohm sales kiosks for the new service should show up that day in the Columbia, Arundel Mills, Harbor Galleria and Marley Station malls.

Sprint Nextel reported a loss of $344 million for the second quarter and has said that losses are expected to continue into the third quarter. However, the company also says that it’s on its way to making a turnaround and that eventually it’s going to be posting profits again.

Verizon, Time Warner Cable and Sprint have signed an agreement with New York's Attorney General to block access to Internet bulletin boards and Web sites nationwide that disseminate child pornography, according to the New York Times. Carriers have traditionally resisted such measures, afraid that the first step of blocking child porn would result in opening the door to the ISP as cyber-nanny.

When comparing Sprint and Verizon's EVDO service, Verizon usually came up short, given their 5GB monthly cap, and terms of service that restricts everything but browsing and e-mail. However, with Sprint suffering through a rocky financial stretch, it looks like their CEO has decided that customers were getting too much, for too little.

Sprint doesn’t want anything to get in the way of the company’s plans to merge with Clearwire to build a massive WiMax network. Anticipating potential hassle from wireless service provider iPCS, Sprint has made the first move and asked a judge to declare that the new network does not violate any exclusivity agreements that the company has with iPCS. Sprint has cause for concern considering the history of the companies; iPCS won in court after the company sued over exclusivity violations when Sprint acquired Nextel. However, Sprint believes that the fact that the WiMax network is on a different frequency from the wireless network should negate any exclusivity issues. Should the court issue the declaration that Sprint seeks, Sprint would avoid future court battles with iPCS over the issue.

Cell phone spam is on the rise with one prediction being that wireless customers are going to receive one and a half billion unsolicited text messages this year (double what the rate was for 2006). Wireless companies have been accused of supporting phone spam because they make a profit off of those people without text message plans who receive these messages.

Sprint's announcement yesterday that they're offering a $100 unlimited voice/SMS/MMS tier couldn't overshadow the fact that their merger with Nextel has been, to quote the Wall Street Journal, a "deal from hell." story continues..

Last November Sprint scrapped a deal with Clearwire that would have seen the two companies splitting the build cost of a nationwide WiMax broadband network 65/35, while allowing users to easily roam between the two networks. According to Sprint at the time, the two companies couldn't agree to terms -- though rumors started to surface shortly thereafter that the two companies would resume talks in 2008.

On the heels of news that Sprint would be firing 4,000 employees and closing 125 (8%) of their company-owned retail locations, the company today announced that they'd be letting go of several high-level executives, including CFO Paul Saleh. A Sprint press release says the company will be getting rid of their Chief Financial Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and President of Sales and Distribution. "I want to thank each of these individual leaders for their dedication and contributions to Sprint Nextel," says new Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. "I wish them all the best in their future endeavors."

Sprint recently announced that the company is on track to begin offering their Xohm WiMax service in April of this year. However, there has been some confusion as to the status of their “soft launch”.

A few weeks ago we noted that Sprint was making changes to the fees they charge customers. In order to protect themselves from accusations that they're dressing up rate hikes as government mandated fees, they've reworded the fees slightly -- though in so doing they've given customers a way out of their contract without suffering an early termination fee. The Consumerist notes that several Sprint users are having luck switching carriers without paying an ETF, so it is working. They point to a special Sprint hotline (703-433-4401) if Sprint CSRs give you grief.

Although the merger between Sprint and Nextel first began nearly three years ago, a Washington Post reporter says that the two companies never really merged. Sure, they began operating under the same shared name and streamlined jobs (by pitting employees from each company against one another to eliminate duplicated positions) but they never really merged the very different cultures that each company came to the merger with.

Yeah, while we here in the States wait to see if Sprint has the financial muscle to get their mobile WiMax network built, Samsung is releasing their second generation of mobile WiMax gear in South Korea (Aving via Gizmodo)Meanwhile, back here in the States, Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett (who seems in a constant state of trying to re-assure investors that Comcast stock doesn't suck) is floating the idea that the cable giant could team up with Sprint to offer mobile WiMax -- if they don't make a play on their own:We've mentioned that investors have been scared of Comcast's stock because of Verizon FiOS, and because they believe Comcast is preparing to make an expensive wireless broadband move. Sprint last week announced that it had scrapped its mobile WiMax partnership with Clearwire after the two companies couldn't hash out the details.

With the recent departure of Sprint CEO Gary Forsee, there was ample speculation that Sprint would put the brakes on Xohm -- Sprint's mobile WiMax service slated for launch next year (to the tune of $5 billion). The service, which will offer users 2-4Mbps wireless broadband for around $40-$50, was championed heavily by the now-departed CEO.

Congratulations Sprint customers! Given that the company's customer service has been robustly miserable since their Nextel acquisition, the company today announced that they're providing a "new customer experience," which will take effect on Monday, November 12.

Among the changes Sprint is implementing to help stem defections is a new prorated early termination fee (ETF) policy, a courtesy call to tell users they're over their minutes, a thirty day free-trial period, and a new reward program for long-time customers.

Cable companies and Sprint have been grumbling about their co-branded Pivot wireless service -- which for $15-$25 (on top of a traditional Sprint mobile plan) nets cable customers mobile video content, email access and web browsing. Comcast's CEO had admitted there's limited consumer interest, while Sprint has complained that the cable operators (Cox, Time Warner Cable, Advance/Newhouse are also on board) aren't pushing the service very hard.