Home › News ›

Sprint, Weighing the 4G Future, Eyes T-Mobile for Help

Aug 31, 2010, 7:50 PM by Eric M. Zeman

According to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal, Sprint's board of directors is trying to decide the best course of action for its future with respect to their WiMax network. Sprint and Clearwire are together building out a nationwide WiMax 4G network. Sprint owns 54% of Clearwire. Clearwire, however, doesn't have the funding available to complete its portion of the network buildout. Sprint's dilemma is to decide whether or not to come up with the funding itself, or seek outside help. The Journal's sources have indicated that at least some of the members of Sprint's board are considering the idea of allowing T-Mobile USA (owned by Germany's Deutsche Telekom) to invest in Clearwire and help fund the rest of the 4G WiMax network. The Journal says that some of Sprint's board members are adamantly opposed to the idea of seeking help from a competitor. T-Mobile has problems of its own. T-Mobile has a growing HSPA+ footprint across the U.S., and expects to have 200 million Americans covered by the end of the year. However, T-Mobile has no 4G strategy. It doesn't own the spectrum necessary to build out a Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G network of its own. Both Sprint and Deutsche Telekom have made overtures before about finding ways to help one another, but the matter has become more urgent, reports the Journal, as Clearwire will need more cash by the end of 2010. On top of that, both Sprint and Clearwire have made public statements that put the future of WiMax as their 4G networking technology to question. Management of both companies have indicated that they are open to the idea of potentially switching from WiMax to LTE. Neither Sprint, Clearwire, nor T-Mobile has confirmed the Journal's story.

Related

iPhone 14 Plus Offers a Big Screen For Less

Sep 7, 2022
Apple has revealed the iPhone 14 series, with new features, improved specs, and new size options. In place of a Mini option, the iPhone 14 will come in the same 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch screen size options as the Pro models.

Sonim XP5plus Emulates Traditional Two-Way Radios

Jul 15, 2022
Sonim has introduced the XP5plus, an update to its XP5s rugged feature phone with PTT (push-to-talk) designed for first responders and other field workers. While the phone has several upgrades, the most unusual is the two large physical knobs on the top, for PTT channel select and volume.

Motorola's new Edge Offers a Lot for $500

Aug 18, 2022
Motorola has taken the wraps off its new Edge phone for 2022. This is the little sibling to the Edge+, the company's flagship phone.

T-Mobile Details Plans to Keep its Lead in Mid-Band 5G Through 2023

Dec 1, 2021
T-Mobile recently announced that its mid-band 5G network now covers over 200 million people, a threshold that the industry acknowledges as "nationwide" coverage. (Mid-band 5G offers an ideal balance of fast data speeds and broad coverage compared to 5G in other bands.) In an interview with Phone Scoop, T-Mobile executives detailed how they plan to maintain the company's lead in mid-band 5G even as Verizon and AT&T launch mid-band 5G early next year.

AT&T, Dish Big Winners in FCC's Latest Mid-Band Auction

Jan 14, 2022
The US FCC (Federal Communications Commission) just announced the winners of its auction 110, for prime new mid-band radio spectrum ideal for 5G. AT&T and Dish spent the most, each splurging for enough licenses to cover the entire continental US.

Comments

This forum is closed.

This forum is closed.

flip mode

Sep 1, 2010, 3:22 PM

Well here's what should happen...

T-Mobile becomes owner of Sprint and manages both networks. With T-Mobile's faily decent customer service reputation it should go rough at first possibly but will smooth on out.

crammy1

"T-Mobile's fairly decent customer service reputation"
not at all what im hearing from disgruntled tmo subs lately =)

waterbottle

Aug 31, 2010, 8:19 PM

seriously...?

"However, T-Mobile has no 4G strategy."

Didn't PS have a big story about how the upgraded tmo network is faster than sprint's 4g?

And Sprint's 4g stands for 4th generation, not 4G speeds....

Eric M. Zeman

HSPA+ is not 4G. It sure is fast, and it might be faster (right now) than Sprint's WiMax, but it is not 4th Generation as defined by the 3GPP2.

T-Mobile has publicly stated that it wants to deploy LTE, but it hasn't said if, how, or when it will do...
(continues)

...

DE 2 Philly

Aug 31, 2010, 9:01 PM

$print? $

With Sprint having the first quarter in 3 years grossing more gains than losses; and the still surplus in moneys incoming.. (no sprint isnt in debt before everyone goes ranting).. I would think they would be able to afford more investments into their 4G network?

Does this hint toward another reason for a merger?

Versed

Not sure but time will tell, but there are other options, TMO/TD investing into Clear and either continuing with wimax or the smarter course dump it and go LTE and or doing what the Canadian cdma carriers do, use hspa+ as their 3g alternative. Which ...
(continues)

...

Jonathanlc2005

Sep 1, 2010, 12:23 AM

...and im not helping the issue

see, after realizing im right now on the florida space coast and not having 4g like daytona beach and orlando and ft lauderdale...

im protesting a data war by streaming slingbox on my phone and computer (via mobile hotspot) by doing 8 gigs of data in 4 days. i want 4g because i dont feel like paying brighthouse for something i already have in PA

CellStudent

Keep it up, Jack. Keep giving Clear and Sprint an incentive to roll out tiered data like the rest of the world will.

You're not doing yourself (or any other data hog) any favors by running up your service providers operating costs for no reason ot...
(continues)

...

Azeron

Aug 31, 2010, 9:38 PM

Stay the Course

If Clear cannot come up with its share of the funding then Sprint should buy them out and stay the course...alone. Providing a lifeline for a competitor is ridiculous.

Versed

Another good point, there is nothing wrong with a merger, or reselling spectrum to TMO. Nothing to be gained if the two smaller national carriers fight each other over the future. It will just play right into the hands of AT&T and VZW.

...

Azeron

Sep 1, 2010, 12:44 AM

Please Don't Do It Sprint

You passed on merging with Alltel, which would have significantly increased your footprint. Then you merged with Nextel which not only duplicated your existing foot print but caused you to spend billions settling lawsuits and trying to make two incompatible technologies work together...before coming to the grips with the definition of incompatible. Now...I'm not saying that Wi-Max and LTE cannot work together...I'm just saying that Sprint should not be involved with anymore merging of technologies especially when T-Mobile's footprint will not help.

iDont Care

Azeron said:
You passed on merging with Alltel, which would have significantly increased your footprint. Then you merged with Nextel which not only duplicated your existing foot print but caused you to spend billions settling laws

...
(continues)

crood

This says nothing about a merger. This is about getting someone to invest in Clearwire to fund the buildout. They would be partners in Clearwire, not a merged company.

...

muchdrama

Sep 1, 2010, 1:25 AM

It's pretty clear--

--somehow, some way, Sprint and Tmobile need each other.

CellStudent

Aug 31, 2010, 11:35 PM

Sprint + T-mo

If they can get unified on a 4G strategy, they might be able to pull off a merger 5-7 years down the road and provide better competition against AT&T and Verizon.

Wouldn't that be interesting?

Azeron

It would simply be redundant.

Page 1 of 1