The Wall Street Journal has filed a report stating that Sprint’s board of directors is attempting to resolve its current WiMax deployment initiative in the wake of the current rollout being conducted by Clearwire.  Even though 54% of Clearwire is owned by Sprint, the broadband provider does not have the funding to complete its rollout of the network, which has led Sprint to decide on whether to raise the necessary funds internally or seek an external investor in order to acquire the funding necessary.
The report also makes the T-Mobile connection by stating that some Sprint board members are considering reaching out to T-Mobile USA in order to invest in Clearwire in order to complete the rollout, as T-Mobile is currently rolling out its HSPA+ overlay, but does not have a plan in place for a 4G network strategy. Both companies have made statements to the media implying that each company would be willing to help each other, but the matter is reaching a fever pitch as Clearwire needs the additional funding by the end of the year in order to stay within its current deployment plan.
Another facet to the issue is the previous statements made by both Clearwire and Sprint representatives regarding the possibility of moving to LTE, with Clearwire making the most recent moves to test a combined WiMax/LTE test network in Arizona later this Fall and Sprint CEO Dan Hesse stating that Sprint is considering LTE in the future for its voice network as well as a merger with T-Mobile.
So, Clearwire is going broke building out wimax, Sprint is hemmoraging customers, and is looking to T-Mobile to buy them out, with both jumping ship to LTE, holding hands and singing Kumbayah together. How nice…(claps hands). Wow. I can hardly wait to see how this shakes out.
I thought Clear was improving, adding subs and not losing money. Mamma always told me “that’s what you get for thoughting instead of thinking”
I don’t think that’s what this means. Clearwire is not going broke, they just have a set date for their part of the deployment and the funds are needed now not later. I don’t think clearwire is going broke anytime soon, just look at their market value. Also last time I checked sprint wasn’t loosing that many customers anymore. They actually increased customers last quarter and their customer service rating has gone up not to mention their data services are in par or better than most when it comes to reliability. Also their talks about going to lte is about using both wimax and lte together, not leaving wimax behind completely. It might help to do a little more research.
@ Jim
Nicely put, however let us hope that it is not the case, since that would reduce the choices for the consumers one more time, which would certainly be bad news in the long run.
Nextel + SPRINT= Trouble
SPRINT + T-Mobile =Repeated pattern of further merger incompatibilities!
Thank You
Thank You
I don’t think the same mistakes made in the previous merger will happen again if another similar one occurs
I want more coverage for this, the Hoosier state hasn’t been mentioned by either of the 4G platforms. WiMax is all alone and doing well so I don’t see what the rush is for considering only a few countries have LTE while we wait on a higher priced tiered plan in the same areas.
[…] follows months of hand wringing from both Clearwire and Sprint on the direction of the venture as the company is still relying on […]