Sprint’s WiMax wireless broadband data service, called Xohm (pronounced “zome”), was able to rightly claim it the first carrier to offer the long-awaited official version of the technology to businesses and consumers.

(Clearwire, a provider of pre-standard WiMax service that Sprint’s Xohm unit will be merged into later this year, began its service offerings earlier.)

The Sprint WiMax service operates as fast as 4Mbps. One early WiMax adopter says Xohm is delivering good connection speeds: “When it first started I was getting about 2.1Mbps, but yesterday we were getting 3.2Mbps,” says Richard Levy, president of National Imaging Systems, an HP imaging products dealer.

Sprint plans to set up service in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and northern Virginia, in addition to its existing service in Baltimore.

Clearwire operates now in Anchorage; Boise; Dayton, Ohio; Duluth, Minn.; Honolulu; Nashville; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Richmond, Va.; Rochester, N.Y.; Seattle; Syracuse, N.Y.; Tacoma, Wash.; Winston-Salem, N.C.; plus another dozen smaller cities in central California, northeast Florida, Minnesota, Oregon, North Carolina, northern Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.