Sprint over the past week has dropped some tidbits on when to expect their innovative Network Vision cell site technology to begin going online, and when to begin expecting LTE-enabled devices.
The embattled carrier created Network Vision as a way of mitigating the five current network platforms that it will power: iDEN, CDMA & EVDO, WiMAX, and LTE. All five have unique spectrum and tuning requirements that have stalled Sprint’s growth over the years. The difference between Sprint CDMA and Nextel iDEN alone cost Sprint millions of consumers, a fact Sprint has begrudgingly admitted, and attempted to correct with three iterations of Direct Connect (iDEN, QChat, and the current “remixed” QChat platform). Adding in Clearwire’s WiMAX, and Sprint’s eventual decision to go to LTE… and Sprint had to create its own solution to this spectrum problem.
Network Vision, as we have covered from the day it was announced, will allow Sprint to toggle resources and spectrum remotely, without accessing towers. This will allow Sprint to dynamically raise and lower spectrum for each of these platforms based on demand, ensuring that customers on legacy CDMA and WiMAX devices can keep using them, and that LTE will operate properly as iDEN is phased out.
The current roadmap that Sprint has announced calls for the deployment of WiMAX and CDMA as soon as possible, rollout has begun in many areas. One thing Sprint is keeping close to the vest however, is how much new WiMAX coverage will become available. It is not clear if WiMAX will immediately be turned on in areas where Sprint has not tapped into the backhaul of Clearwire’s network, or has sufficient resources. WiMAX simply may not be enabled network-wide ever. One thing Sprint is doing, is taking advantage of previously iDEN-only towers, and scrapping iDEN towers that will be redundant in this deployment.
The take-home message for CIOs all the way down to customer is; we’re suggesting you migrate away from that iDEN phone, be it on Boost or Sprint Nextel. iDEN customers clearly will have the most coverage impact that we have seen from source’s maps… and it isn’t a positive improvement at all.
CDMA will benefit, though the ESMR band previously used by iDEN will not be taken advantage of dramatically at first. Keep in mind, Nextel will need the ESMR frequency as long as it is active. For those with non-ESMR phones, and that’s most of you, that means you do not need to throw out your old device to get the best 3G coverage. An ESMR phone will only help in a few areas. Sprint will likely tap most of this bandwidth for LTE, so the primary benefit may lie in the long term; rural areas that see iDEN dismantled, but not WiMAX or LTE until fiber backhaul can arrive.
Sprint, this week, did drop the bombshell that LTE handsets will launch in the second half of 2012. However, this is mostly non-news that other drive-by colleagues in the mobile media simply didn’t realize was already known information. Sprint has said all along that LTE and Network Vision will be in consumers hands long before that date. It remains to be seen if Sprint will do an LTE mobile broadband trial in Q2, but this seems unlikely, as Sprint does not want to overcost hardware with tri-mode CDMA/WiMAX/LTE devices. This means that Sprint will wait until LTE coverage overlaps the vast majority of existing Sprint WiMAX coverage, and then launch CDMA/LTE mobile broadband devices.
In all, we chose to write this article based on information that actually is new, rather than regurgitate the “LTE is coming to Sprint in 2H2012” that everyone else has reported. We wrote this instead as a primer on what you’ll expect from Sprint over the next year in terms of real-world experience.
The take-home from this is that for most users, the device you have right now will work better in the years to come, be it CDMA or WiMAX. If you buy a WiMAX phone today, you can rest assured it will work better throughout its 2-year contract timeline, and likely well beyond that too. If you have an iDEN device, we suggest getting rid of it… pronto. Sprint may not like that we’re saying that, but we see the coverage drops coming for iDEN. It’s not Sprint’s fault; AT&T did the same thing to their GSM network upon the desperate need to provide 3G/4G coverage to their customers.
Mr. Price, I was under the impression that WiMAX coverage would not be expanding, that the money that Clearwire receives from Sprint would only be used to maintain the existing WiMAX coverage and roll out LTE. Is my supposition inaccurate?
All Network Vision cell sites can deploy WiMAX. Sprint has been rather coy about how much that will be used. The Sprint cash infusion to Clearwire is different, as Clearwire has already said they have no plans to expand WiMAX.
The value proposition for Clearwire is different from Sprint, as Clearwire doesn’t have much to lose by switching cold turkey to LTE. They are not able to make their minimum debt payments as it is with WiMAX’s customer base on their network.
Sprint however has millions of 4G devices, many in markets that could easily support WiMAX today, but haven’t because Sprint has had to hand that off to Clearwire.
The bottom line is we don’t know how aggressive Sprint will be in going beyond Clearwire’s boundaries with WiMAX. Considering how much Sprint has invested to support WiMAX in the Network Vision hardware arrays, I would not be surprised to see Sprint light up WiMAX in a lot of new places… but Clearwire has a lot less to do with that equation, than Sprint looking to satisfy its own investors and customers.
I hope the best for Sprint, but I’m seriously thinking of jumping ship to Vzw at least until 2013 when my 2 years is up to see the state of Sprint then. The whole Nextel thing was a fiasco, and it looks like Clear was just as bad. To see Sprint dump all of that money into Clear, money they can’t afford to wash down the drain, and to now build the network alone again… somebody should be getting fired. Add to that the horrible 3G speeds as late, and it’s obvious that Sprint’s financial hurting is stressing their ability to augment their network. Given the response at the last financials report, I’ll still be shocked if they got the money to pull of Vision network-wide!
I hope I’m wrong. I really like Sprint. I’ve been with them for 14 years. It’s just sad seeing their current state.
Yes, Sprint has made mistakes, no question about it, but they continue to be the best value in wireless among the national carriers…
They’re a great value when I’m at work where WiMAX gets 6-7Mbps and 3G gets around 500kbps. Near where I live though, there’s no WiMAX & 3G gets 40kbps on a good day, and Sprint’s network upgrade page shows no planned upgrades in my area in the next 6 months. Where I work though, where it’s already decent, there’s more planned upgrades! Go figure!
Sprint is bleeding money left and right. Their investors aren’t happy with their idea to ignore the money pit that was Clear and to get out of their own again. While Network Vision sounds awesome, I’m worried they’re not going to be able to finance it.
They aren’t ignoring Clear. They struck a new agreement with Clearwire at the beginning of this month.
Of course they are. The agreement was just to keep the existing WiMAX going. If they were sticking with Clear, the wouldn’t be rolling out their own LTE network, they’d be working with Clear on their proposed LTE Advanced network.
They whole thing was so mismanaged it’s almost funny.
Our understanding is that LTE Advanced on Clearwire can be used as backhaul on the Sprint network, and that where the networks overlap, the Network Vision cell sites would have a fixed-link LTE Advanced draft network, but this is only for backhaul, not for consumers.
The real concern for Clearwire is if LTE Advanced becomes vaporware, akin to 802.11a, and is superseded by a newer LTE 2.0 protocol. Clearwire could have an LTE network that would have to be upgraded at every cell site to reach that standard. Unlike Sprint, they don’t have the money or consumer awareness to make those mistakes.
Jailbird, that’s not all the agreement was for:
http://corporate.clearwire.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=629282
http://newsroom.sprint.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=2121
Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) and Clearwire (Nasdaq:CLWR) today announced agreements potentially worth up to $1.6 billion over the next four years in payments for WiMAX services, possible pre-payments for LTE services and potential equity investments. The agreements further align Clearwire’s LTE network build as a complement to Sprint’s Network Vision strategy.
Also today, Clearwire announced that it has made interest payments totaling $237 million on its first-priority, second-priority and exchangeable notes which were due Dec. 1, 2011.
“These agreements are a result of the technical MOU we outlined during our third quarter results call and extend our relationship with Clearwire,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO. “It provides Sprint improved pricing, allows us to continue to provide WiMAX 4G services to our customers today and to new customers in the future and provides additional LTE capacity to help complement our Network Vision strategy and meet our customers’ growing data demands.”
TDD-LTE Collaboration
The agreements also lay the foundation for the deployment of Clearwire’s planned LTE Advanced-ready overlay network and outline the terms for Sprint to gain access to the additional LTE capacity. The TDD-LTE rollout will capitalize on Clearwire’s deep spectrum resources to deliver on 4G capacity needs over the long-term. Under the terms, Sprint will pay Clearwire up to $350 million in a series of prepayments over a period of up to two years for LTE capacity if Clearwire achieves certain build-out targets and network specifications by June 2013. The agreements also establish long-term usage-based pricing for LTE services for 2012 and beyond. The companies have agreed to collaborate on a network build plan and will jointly select LTE macro-cell sites to cover Sprint’s high usage area “hotspots.” Clearwire plans to seek additional funding before initiating the build-out of its LTE Advanced-ready network.
In addition, Clearwire and Sprint will work collaboratively to support the ecosystem for TDD-LTE in Band Class 41 for devices, chipsets and standards. Subject to the timing of the build-out and other factors, Sprint expects to launch devices including laptop cards and phones that will utilize Clearwire’s TDD-LTE network in 2013.
[…] I kept it so long because it was cheap and unlimited. Of course, you get what you pay for, and after all this time I’m pretty much left feeling I paid for three-and-a-half years of throttling as Clear struggled to provide the service it promised. Now that Sprint is upgrading its network, and finally turning off the old Nextel bandwidth, Clear is basically screwed. They originally co-located their Wimax transmitters in existing Sprint antenna locations (again, LMGTFY). As Sprint turns on its own LTE service and upgrades their old antenna locations, some Clear Wimax transmitters are being decommissioned entirely. […]