Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Sell Spectrum to Verizon

SpectrumCo, LLC, a joint venture between Comcast Corporation, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks, is selling Verizon Wireless its 122 Advanced Wireless Services spectrum licenses covering 259 million POPs for $3.6 billion. What might be noteworthy is the strategic change of direction. The cable companies purchased the AWS spectrum at least in part as a potential foundation for wireless service.

The sale, and the agreement by the owners to resell Verizon Wireless services instead, suggests the cable operators once again have decided that they could not create independent wireless operations.

Moreover, given the business relationship cable companies have had with Sprint since at least 1994, the move also suggests that the cable operators are breaking with the idea of Sprint as a strategic partner. Since cable companies have been among the potential buyers of Sprint Nextel, the latest moves would seem to indicate no interest in that area.

Cable TV operators have been spending money to get into the wireless business for decades, with little success. In 1994 Sprint, Tele-Communications, Comcast and Cox Cable formed a joint venture to build a nationwide network to provide wireless service.

However in 1998, Sprint assumed control of the business and bought the cable companies' interest in the company.

In 2005 Comcast, Cox, Time Warner and Advance/Newhouse formed a joint venture with Sprint Nextel to provide a quad-play cable TV, high-speed data, landline and wireless service to their customers. But the quad-play idea never panned out and Pivot never grew beyond the initial 33 markets Sprint launched in November 2007.

Sprint said that Pivot was being hindered by provisioning issues. Time Warner later said that demand for Pivot services was "tepid." Pivot users eventually were given the option of switching to Sprint's regular service.

In 2008, Sprint and Clearwire announced that they would combine their WiMAX businesses and create a new company that would include a $3.2 billion investment from Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Trilogy Equity Partners.  Cable wireless history

Recently, Cox Communications decided to shutter its own wireless business as well.

Comcast owns 63.6 percent of SpectrumCo and will receive approximately $2.3 billion from the sale. Time Warner Cable owns 31.2 percent of SpectrumCo and will receive approximately $1.1 billion. Bright House Networks owns 5.3 percent of SpectrumCo and will receive approximately $189 million. Comcast, Time Warner Cable sell spectrum to Verizon

Sprint Rescues Clearwire

Sprint has agreed to pay up to $1.6 billion to struggling wholesale wireless provider Clearwire over the next four years, ending the near-term threat that Clearwire could run out of cash to operate its business and possibly enter bankruptcy.

In large part, that is why Clearwire has made interest payments totaling $237 million on its first-priority, second-priority and exchangeable notes which were due Dec. 1, 2011, and which had been in danger of default by Clearwire.

The deal includes possible pre-payments for LTE services and potential equity investments. Sprint has committed to providing additional equity funding to Clearwire in the event of a future Clearwire equity offering. If Clearwire raises new equity between $400 million and $700 million, Sprint will participate in the offering on a pro rata basis up to $347 million, consistent with Sprint’s current voting interest of 49.6 percent on the same terms and conditions as other participating companies. 

The agreements modify prior wholesale pricing agreements and provide Sprint with unlimited access to Clearwire’s WiMAX network. Under the terms of the agreements, Sprint will pay Clearwire a total of $926 million, approximately two thirds of which will be paid in 2012, for unlimited 4G WiMAX retail services during 2012 and 2013, subject to certain conditions.

The agreements also establish long-term usage-based pricing for WiMAX services in 2014 and beyond. Sprint will have access to Clearwire’s WiMAX network through at least 2015.

Sprint plans to continue selling WiMAX devices with two-year contracts through at least 2012 and support those devices through the life of the contract.

In addition, the agreement provides Sprint competitive pricing for re-wholesaling by Sprint of WiMAX services to third parties as well as increased pricing flexibility for Clearwire’s own wholesale business.  

Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO says the deal “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.”  Sprint funds Clearwire

In October, Clearwire reported that it was discussing the possibility of skipping an interest payment on debt it owes. While the WiMax network isn’t the future of Sprint’s Long Term Evolution strategy, it’s essential, at least for the moment, for supporting millions of Sprint 4G customers.

As part of the deal, Clearwire agreed to keep its WiMax network operational until 2015, which will give both companies time to build out their own LTE high-speed network.

The financing from Sprint gives Clearwire $926 million for unlimited network use for 2012 through 2013. The remaining financing is a prepaid fee for Sprint to use Clearwire’s LTE network, which should be available by June 2013.

Some had speculated that Sprint might be better served to let Clearwire go into bankruptcy, then buy the assets. But that approach would not automatically allow Sprint to secure the spectrum Clearwire now uses. The latest infusion of capital gives Sprint a better bridge to its own LTE future, at the very least.

What Next for T-Mobile USA?

AT&T easily will survive any failure of its bid to buy T-Mobile USA. T-Mobile USA, on the other hand, will continue to face strategic problems. A distant fourth in the U.S. mobile market, with no spectrum available to launch a fourth-generation network, T-Mobile USA either has to spend lots more money to try and catch up to AT&T and Verizon Wireless, or must exit the U.S. market. Few think its parent, Deutsche Telekom, has the appetite for investing.


That suggests T-Mobile USA will still be looking to sell, in the event of a failure of the AT&T bid to buy T-Mobile USA. One issue is the pool of potential buyers. But a significant strategic issue is the value of the asset in a mobile market where being "in the middle" is difficult.


AT&T and Verizon Wireless clearly lead the higher end of the market. Many other larger-regional providers lead the lower end of the market, especially the prepaid segment. That leaves firms such as Sprint and T-Mobile USA in an arguably exposed position, vulnerable to lower-cost providers on the lower end and pressure from the market leaders at the top. 


At a practical level, competing with the larger national contestants means heavy advertising and marketing costs. In some cases, the regional providers can be more targeted about such spending. And that's part of the rub. The providers of lower-cost prepaid services succeed in part by controlling their overhead costs, allowing them to offer lower prices. 


The contrast is perhaps not so stark as the positioning of a mass market retailer between Tiffany and Wal-Mart, or between Tiffany and Amazon.com, but it is the same general problem. 

T-Mobile USA has lost 850,000 contract customers in 2011. In the third quarter, sales fell 2.3 percent to $5.23 billion, though earnings rose 3.8 percent to $332 million. One wonders if earnings rose because T-Mobile USA essentially stopped investing as it would have, if it thought it was going to be an on-going business.

T-Mobile gained 826,000 prepaid customers in this year's first nine months of 2011. The problem is that profit margins for such customers are lower than margins for prepaid customers. Also, T-Mobile USA is the only service provide of the top four without the ability to sell the Apple iPhone. Deutsche Telekom's unsolved problem

Spectrum assets are another issue. T-Mobile USA’s CEO, Philipp Humm, made the point at a May 2011 hearing on the merger before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “As data usage continues to explode, spectrum is becoming a constraint to our business, with T-Mobile facing spectrum exhaust over the next couple of years in a number of significant markets,” Humm said. “Moreover, our spectrum holdings will not allow us to launch [Long Term Evolution]. ” No independent future?

Is Clearwire Headed for Bankruptcy?

Clearwire Corp. is weighing whether to make a big debt payment that comes due in two weeks, a decision that could ultimately lead to a bankruptcy, a danger Clearwire has been warning in its quarterly reports for some time, as the company's full business plan remains substantially unfunded. 


The $237 million payment is due Dec. 1, 2011, and Clearwire, with $698 million in cash and short-term investments on Sept. 30, 2011 can afford to make it.

But the company needs to raise lots of money if it is to stay in business after the next 12 months. Clearwire May Skip Big Debt Payment

Sprint, which owns 53 percent of Clearwire, recently has suggested it could help Clearwire with an additional cash infusion. Will Sprint throw Clearwire a Lifeline? But it also has been argued that Sprint, or any other potential investor, would be better off waiting until Clearwire actually goes bankrupt, and then buy the asset then.


Clearwire has never completed its national WiMAX network, and now says it will build an LTE network as well. Some believe even AT&T or Verizon might invest, under some circumstances, or that Clearwire could attract another major anchor customer other than Sprint. Would AT&T invest? 

Sprint Accelerates Network Vision

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse says "Network Vision is coming along so well, we've accelerated from three to five years to just three years." Investors might be concerned about the timing of capital investment, as the acceleration means "we'll be spending more money sooner."

But Spring doesn't really have time to delay the full transition to a flexible network that will allow Sprint to light its Long Term Evolution network faster, as well as support additional LTE bandwidth it might wholesale from partners, as well as sell capacity to LTE customers.

Sprint Accelerates Network Vision

Clearwire to Stop Selling Sprint 3G

Clearwire has stopped offering postpaid plans to new customers and will no longer sell dual-mode WiMAX/3G devices that use Sprint's CDMA network. Sprint, for its part, says it will not sell Clearwire WiMAX phones after 2012. Clearwire dumps Sprint 3G


The moves clearly point to a shift by both carriers to Long Term Evolution. Sprint's shift away from WiMAX, and Clearwire's shift away from 3G both mean each carrier is free to emphasize Long Term Evolution services expected to be offered on both networks as the "preferred" 4G network, going forward. 

Sprint Nextel Corp. says it will stop selling phones and other devices compatible with Clearwire Corp.'s network at the end of 2012, as it switches customers to its own Long Term Evolution network. 


It is possible to paint the picture as a sign of deteriorating relations between Sprint and Clearwire, but a shift to 4G and LTE is the real meaning of the changes. Sprint is carving out LTE capacity from its own 3G spectrum, while Clearwire needs to build an entirely new LTE network using spectrum it might otherwise devote to WiMAX. 


Also, as Clearwire shifts away from a dual role as both a wholesaler of capacity and a retail brand, it has to be cognizant of what its wholesale customers want, and Sprint, Clearwire's top customer, clearly is signaling it wants LTE plus CDMA to be the preferred "dual mode" approach it prefers. 


The irony is that Sprint owns a majority of Clearwire. Sprint to halt WiMAX sales

Apple iPhone 50% More Bandwidth Efficient than Android?

Sprint thinks iPhone is 50% More Bandwidth Efficient

"There is a misperception that our launch of the iPhone will increase the load on Sprint 3G network and require us to spend more 3G capital," says Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. "The reverse is true."

"IPhone users are expected to use significantly less data than the typical user of a dual-mode, 3G-4G device," he says. Apple iPhone might help Sprint on bandwidth


"Even adjusting for more total new customers being added to the network, we believe it will put less load on our 3G network than they would have if we did not carry the iPhone."

Some of that difference might be due to user behavior, but some is undoubtedly related to signaling overhead, something AT&T worked on with Apple, and which is being addressed in the latest update to the Android operating system as well. Signaling overhead a big issue


As it turns out, mobile applications and handsets can be tweaked to reduce signaling load on mobile radios, something that alleviates network congestion. Signaling can cause congestion

Sprint Changes Tethering Plans

Sprint is pulling the plug on its unlimited data plans for Wi-Fi tethered access, starting November 2011. Unlimited usage will remain in effect for smart phone usage, though. 


If you subscribe to 3G/4G Mobile broadband service or have a Mobile Hotspot Add-on for your phone, you may have received a notification from Sprint that the data allowances for these services are changing. Please see below for details on the data allowances that will begin with your next bill following notification. Visit sprint.com/termsandconditions for other important information.


If you have a mobile broadband device such as a tablet, netbook, notebook, USB card, connection card or Mobile Hotspot device, effective beginning with your next bill following notification, your on-network monthly data allowance will no longer include unlimited 4G.


There are no changes to your monthly recurring charges, on-network overage rates, off-network overage rate, or off-network data allowance. For information on how much 3G and 4G data you currently use, visit sprint.com/mysprint. Find out what you can do with 3GB, 5GB or 10GB of data here.

Mobile broadband plan changes

Sprint says iPhone 4S Isn't Congesting the Network

Sprint says reports that the Apple iPhone 4S is causing congestion on Sprint's network are in error.

"As always, Sprint is carefully monitoring the performance of the 3G network," Sprint said. "We are looking into a small number of reports of slow data speeds when using the iPhone 4S."

All speed tests are subject to handset performance, time of day and physical location and obstructions. And some tests have suggested that Sprint's 3G network, which supports iPhone devices, is not the fastest.

Sprint says iPhone 4S Isn't Slowing Access

Sprint Details LTE Plans As Clearwire’s Decline Accelerates | mocoNews

To say there is a bit of instability in much of the U.S. mobile backhaul market would be an understatement. After announcing it would buy about $20 billion worth of Apple iPhones, whether it can sell them or not, Sprint announced that it would expedite the building of its new Long Term Evolution network this summer, with completion by the end of 2013, a breath-taking time table. $20 billion worth of iPhones


Sprint also said it would no longer sell WiMAX devices after 2012, a clear indication Sprint intends to wean its customers off the Clearwire network. Clearwire and Sprint equities both tanked on the news. 

Sprint executives say LTE devices would be available for its network in the summer of 2012. Sprint LTE plans


Clearwire insisted it wasn’t dead, and remains essential to Sprint's 4G plans. Investors clearly aren't so sure. But with LightSquared still facing serious objections to its own LTE launch plans, that means three national networks now face a bit of uncertainty about how much capacity they will be needing, and perhaps none of the three companies can provide complete assurance of financial success in the future, as independent entities. 


Nor, for that matter, can any of the three completely shake concerns about bankruptcy. Three national networks that might not exist in the future is quite a lot of potential backhaul business that could evaporate. 


Of course, Dish Network also says it wants to build a national LTE network, so add a fourth element to the dynamic situation. 

Sprint: No more Clearwire devices after 2012

Sprint Nextel Corp. says it will stop selling phones and other devices compatible with Clearwire Corp.'s network at the end of 2012, as it switches customers to its own Long Term Evolution network. The irony is that Sprint owns a majority of Clearwire. Still, the latest Sprint news might help clarify the Sprint relationship with the wholesaler.

What Clearwire has to decide is whether it can afford to switch to LTE itself at the same time it cannot seem to finance its national network build. One would have to say it is starting to look as though Clearwire cannot survive as an independent entity. Its biggest wholesale customer is going to stop referring customers to Clearwire. Sprint, by indicating it will no longer sell WiMAX devices, also is signaling that customers will in the future be served by Sprint's own network. That means even the customers Clearwire now gets from Sprint are going to start to decline.

Sprint says "No more" Clearwire devices after 2012

Sprint to Launch LTE in Former CDMA Spectrum

Sprint executives now are explaining how they will launch Long Term Evolution services on the Sprint network, using the 1900 MHz spectrum.

If the implications are not clear, it means Sprint has decided to start using the LTE air interface in the same spectrum it presently uses to support its 3G CDMA network.

That means a complete upgrade to LTE across the entire Sprint footprint, cannibalizing CDMA spectrum.

Some had thought Sprint would use the 800-MHz spectrum freed up by the shut down of the iDEN network, or perhaps spectrum made available by Clearwire. It appears Sprint simply has decided it cannot wait, and is going to start pulling 3G spectrum off line as it adds LTE services in the same frequencies.

Sprint executives expect that by the end of 2013, 275 million potential users (PoPs) will be covered by the LTE network, including 100 percent of the area where Sprint's 4G WiMAX services now exist.

The move is highly significant, as it means Sprint is going to move fairly quickly to upgrade CDMA users to LTE.

Sprint to use CDMA bands for LTE

Sprint confirms unlimited 3G data plans for iPhone

Sprint confirmed on Wednesday that it still plans to offer unlimited data on the iPhone 4 and 4S when they launch on the network the week of Oct. 10, 2011.

Sprint confirms unlimited 3G data plans for iPhone

New Sprint Hotspot Data Cap of 5GB

Sprint has been tightening its belt in a number of other ways, including killing off its Sprint Premier upgrade program and raising upgrade fees.

Now it appears Sprint will dramatically revise its mobile hotspot plans. Sprint customers new and old get hotspot data cap of 5GB

Sprint will start capping data used by phone hotspots to 5 GBytes per month.

Even existing customers won’t be exempt from the new cap, and will be migrated to a new plan enforcing the limit after a friendly reminder from their carrier.

Google Launches Wallet on Sprint

Google has released the first version of the Google Wallet app to Sprint. That means the Google Wallet app will be pushed to all Sprint Nexus S 4G phones through an over-the-air update. The app will be shown as“Wallet.”

Sprint "Simplicity" Demand is Really "Protect Me" Demand

Sprint bases much of its retail pricing strategy on "simplicity." Some might say that is another way of saying "no worry about overage charges. The strategy is well founded, in the Internet access era. Some will not be able to remember it, but America Online, even before that firm began calling itself AOL, and before it decided to essentially abandon the ISP business, used to charge users by the minute.

When AOL switched to "unlimited" usage, freeing users from the need to deal with metered access, usage exploded. For that reason, fixed broadband service plans in the U.S. market have been "unlimited" until quite recently.

That approach generally has not been used in the mobile business, which has more stringent capacity issues. Sprint, for the moment, remains the carrier most associated with "unlimited" access plans. Some Yankee Group research data from the United Kingdom shows the continuing power of the "don't worry about overage charges" approach. About 29 percent of U.K. consumers surveyed indicated they were willing to pay a 10-percent premium to receive protection from unexpected overage charges.

They also were willing to pay more for higher speeds, especially when available "on demand."

Sprint User Base is Different

Lots of people have offered, and will continue to offer, advice about how Sprint can do better in the U.S. mobile market, whether or not the AT&T deal to buy T-Mobile USA succeeds, or not. Advice, one might argue, is easy to give, especially when it concerns how any firm, lead by any set of talented managers, can change its fundamental position in a market whose structure is fairly well fixed.

Though some will question the continued relevance, a long-standing study of firms in many industries, taking a look at market share, quality and profit margin, suggests that it is very hard to change firm position in an established industry. Market share patterns

Though the existence of a correlation is not necessarily a causal relationship, there is relatively significant evidence that markets develop patterns. Pareto_principle Among the more-enduring patterns is a tendency towards market concentration by a handful of leaders.

Some might argue, for that reason, that the current U.S. mobile market structure is not unusual, and might become even more concentrated over time. The informal rule of thumb might be that in any market, most of the share i(80 percent or so) is held by a small number of providers (perhaps 20 percent or fewer).

The U.S. mobile industry is more concentrated than that, but you get the point. It would be difficult under the best of conditions for Sprint Nextel to dramatically change its position in the market. But, that noted, there are some apparent differences of end user behavior that could provide something of an opening.

Some of us would not say the differences necessarily offer Sprint a way to change its market position in a dramatic way, but might offer a way to help solidify its current position. The difference is the apparent preference for Android among Sprint users, or perhaps Sprint’s willingness to bank on Android for some highly-popular devices such as the HTC Evo line.

Note recent Yankee Group surveys indicating that Sprint users are heavy users of Android devices. It is of course possible that the data reflects Sprint’s historic inability to sell the Apple iPhone, forcing Sprint to emphasize the HTC Evo as a lead offer, and thus producing the skew Yankee Group found.

One might similarly argue that Verizon Wireless faced the same problem in the days when it also could not sell the Apple iPhone. If so, it always is possible that the Android preferences illustrated by Yankee Group are a tactical, short term user demand trend that easily could change in the future.

Still, no matter what happens with the AT&T bid to buy T-Mobile USA, Sprint is going to have to work pretty hard simply to solidify some distinctive position in the market, even as a “distant third” provider, compared to Verizon Wireless and AT&T.

It does presently appear, however, that Sprint users consume more data, and use Android, more so than customers of the other top four networks. 

Sprint: LTE in iDEN Spectrum?

Few observers think Sprint will not adopt Long Term Evolution as one of its fourth generation network strategies, though most expect it also will continue to use Clearwire's WiMAX as well. If Sprint decides to switch to LTE, the company must find spectrum to do so.

"There is a high likelihood that LTE is in our future in one flavor or another," said Geoff Martin, who heads up the U.S. operator's M2M collaboration center. http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=464629

The logical candidate is the 14 MHz of 800 MHz spectrum now used to support the iDEN network and Nextel devices. Sprint has announced plans to decommission iDEN in 2013.

Sprint switching to LTE

Google Voice Sprint Integration Goes Live April 26, 2011

Some Google users already have the feature activated.

There are two ways to enable the integrated service:

1. Option 1: Keep your Sprint number (all the benefits of porting without the need to). In this case, your Sprint number becomes your Google Voice number so that when people call your Sprint mobile number, it rings all the phones you want.

How to enable this: click on the "change/port" link next to your GV # in the settings page, choose the option to use your existing number, enter your Sprint number and select the Sprint option.

2. Option 2: Replace your Sprint number with your Google Voice number (all the benefits of the app without the need for one). In this case, all calls made from your Sprint phone will display your Google Voice # natively (same for SMS).

HTC EVO 4G $99 on Amazon

The HTC EVO 4G, which sells for $199.99 from Sprint, is now available for a bargain $99.99 when purchased through Amazon.com, with a service plan. It is available in both black and white color schemes.

buy here at Amazon