Sprint as Wal-Mart?

“Sprint is at a crossroads,” said Craig Moffett, a New York-based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “Their time-to- market advantage is now largely gone for 4G.”

That's true enough. What isn't so clear is how Sprint's positioning will evolve, now that the 4G platform does not offer such uniqueness.

Some might argue that Sprint will have emphasize its lower cost plans for unlimited wireless data use. "Unlimited," assuming the other carriers do not offer it, will offer some uniqueness.

I suspect Sprint will do more than that. Whether Sprint would agree with the Wal-Mart analogy is not clear. That Sprint would base its strategy on that seems unlikely. We'll see.

Sprint May Become Wal-Mart of Mobile as Rivals Move to `4G' - Bloomberg

Craig McCaw to Resign as Clearwire Chairman - WSJ.com

Craig McCaw is leaving the board of Clearwire Corp., resigning his position as chairman of the company he founded. It isn't clear what significance the move might have.

McCaw has not be active at the company for some time, it appears. McCaw's Eagle River Holdings LLC still holds a four-percent stake in the company. But that is no longer very significant. Google owns about three percent. Clearwire owns about 14 percent.

Intel owns about 11 percent. Time Warner Cable, Comcast and Brighthouse own ab out 15 percent between them.

Sprint holding 57 percent ownership, though the terms of its ownership agreement deny it control.

Clearwire's national network plan remains less than fully funded, and the company has enough cash to get it through the year, but obviously additional capital will have to be raised. Some continue to believe that Sprint will ultimately wind up owning the whole company. Most probably have believed all along Clearwire would ultimately be sold, one way or the other.

Whether McCaw's departure means anything special is impossible to determine, at this point. But all three Sprint executives resigned their seats earlier in 2010, a move that most observers thought was an indication of change.

Most executives in the wireless business would agree that one fewer national providers of 4G service would not be a bad thing, given the wireless market's maturation, as well as the existence of no less than five national 4G or 4G-speed networks.

Just about any way one looks at it, the Clearwire-Sprint relationship is complicated and unstable.

http://investors.clearwire.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=198722&p=irol-sec

Test of T-Mobile HSPA and Sprint WiMAX Networks

One has to take mobile broadband speed tests with a bit of circumspection, as experienced throughput can vary enormously at any single location, at any point in time, when using only one device.

But in a recent test of the T-Mobile myTouch 4G and Samsung Epic 4G in Philadelphia and Trenton, N.J., the T-Mobile USA and Sprint WiMAX networks performed virtually the same in Philadelphia, with the Sprint network performing much better in Trenton, N.J.

The tests also showed differing speeds at various test points in each city, as well. You probably can argue the merits of each network (HSPA+ and WiMAX) based on these tests. They do suggest that HSPA+ can offer comparable throughput to WiMAX, at some times and places.

T-Mobile HSPA vs Sprint WiMAX - Phone Arena

Clearwire 4G Active in Denver?

Now this is a pleasant shock. Clearwire's 4G network seems to up and running in central Denver. There has been no announcement that I am aware of, and, in fact, Clearwire has said it would delay Denver construction, as I recall.  But there it is: I am getting a live 4G signal on my Evo. Marvelous.


Since it is rumored that Sprint and Clearwire are in disagreement about whether Sprint should actually be paying Clearwire for service it is unable to provide, the signal activation implies to me that Clearwire and Sprint have reached agreement, at least in Denver.

Sprint says it has 810,000 customers with 4G handsets in areas that have not yet been lit up with WiMAX 4G, yet Sprint still has to pay for those customers, to the tune of about 4.46 per customer, reports indicate.

The more interesting question is how much of Denver already has radios in place, powered up and ready to go. Clearwire originally had been planning to light up the 4G network by the end of 2010, and then backed off. Apparently there are enough Sprint customers in Denver that the lost revenue is more painful than the cost of operating the retail network.

Sprint Will be Shutting Down a Network, But it is iDEN

Sprint and Clearwire have been testing Long Term Evolution as an air interface using fallow spectrum. obviously raising questions about whether Sprint Nextel and Clearwire might ditch WiMAX for LTE.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse says the only networks that are slated for replacement at some point are Sprint Nextel's legacy networks, ranging from iDEN, used for the Nextel part of the operation, to the older second-generation and third-generation networks Sprint also supports.

LTE isn't necessarily on Sprint's roadmap, Hesse says, though it is conceivable Sprint Nextel might be interested in supporting dual-mode "WiMAX-plus-LTE handsets.

It is a simple fact that each generation of mobile networks gets replaced, about every 10 years, though the transition periods can last longer. Hesse notes that “2G will eventually come to an end; CDMA will come to an end; GSM will come to an end and iDEN will come to an end.”

“Over time, as fewer customers are using our 2G networks, we can use that spectrum for the CDMA/EVDO network.” Even the current iDEN spectrum might eventually be switched over to support CDMA and EVDO on that band of frequencies, especially to support voice services.

read more here

Sprint Board Members Depart Clearwire

Sprint Nextel Corp. executives serving on the Clearwire Corp. board of directors have left the board, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse and fellow executives Keith Cowan and Steven Elfman have resigned from the Clearwire board. A spokeswoman for Sprint said the company plans to appoint independent successor directors in the next few months. In the meantime, Sprint has named its general counsel, Charles Wunsch, as an independent observer to the Clearwire board.

Clearwire said that the resignations were prompted by recent changes in antitrust laws, but the move could also could provide Clearwire added flexibility to pursue a deal of some sort that might bring T-Mobile USA into Clearwire as an equity owner, for example.

On the other hand, some speculate that Sprint might also have an opportunity to increase its stake, as other shareholders such as Comcast Corp. have signaled they are unwilling to provide additional funding Clearwire requires. A move of that sort might not require a greater arms length relationship with Clearwire, though.

Clearwire said the move came "out of an abundance of caution to address questions raised by Clearwire

Clearwire's board structure allows for 13 members, seven of which Sprint has the right to appoint. The remaining four independent Sprint appointees to the Clearwire board remain.

Since Clearwire and Sprint compete at the retail level, the current board membership has proven awkward, observers note.

In some ways, it is hard to see any long-term solution that does not have Sprint acquiring a larger stake in Clearwire. Whether a firm the size of Sprint can live, long term, with buying its crucial 4G services from a firm it also competes with is open to question.

Sprint Nextel also faces the complexity of operating several different air interface networks (iDEN, CDMA and WiMAX). Those problems are not directly related to the size or control of the Clearwire network, but could become even more complicated if Sprint adds Long Term Evolution services at some point.

To Build a Mobile Network, You Need Access to Rooftops

Wireless operators frequently cannot build their networks as fast as they would like because they cannot always get rooftop access rights as fast as they would like, or at prices they believe are reasonable. Here Sprint talks about rooftops in New York city.

Clearwire LTE Plans Won't Be Long In Coming

Clearwire and Sprint Nextel have been dropping clear hints that Clearwire could adopt Long Term Evolution as an air interface, either alongside its existing WiMAX network or as an eventual replacement.

Since the U.S. wireless industry has been through technology transitions before, it isn't hard to suggest how it might happen, and when. Companies have had to make transitions from one air interface to another within a single generation of technology, as well as migrating customers from an older generation to a new generation.

Where one air interface is switched out in favor of another within a technology generation, the trick is to add all new customers to the new interface while allowing the legacy base of customers to dwindle through attrition. At some point, the old network then can be shut down without undue disruption.

Where an older generation network is replaced by a next-generation network, additional spectrum also is required. If Clearwire wants to shift air interfaces within the fourth generation, it would maintain current customers on WiMAX, while creating a new LTE network alongside WiMAX, signing up new customers on LTE, and allowing WiMAX customers to gradually shrink through attritiion.

That suggests Clearwire will not want to wait too long, as it will want to limit the number of WiMAX customers it has to support while the LTE network is populated with customers.

As an operational matter--and there are other issues to consider--moving sooner is better than moving later, especially given the larger number of customers now coming onboard on the WiMAX network because of the popularity of the Evo.

On the other hand, abrupt action is not required, or even preferable, as the practical details of interworking between LTE and WiMAX, in the core of the network, will have to be proven, in a full deployment mode.

Handset suppliers will also need some time to ready suitable handsets that interwork, as devices now can use either the 2G and 3G networks, or 3G and 4G networks. Alternatively, Clearwire could encourage single-network devices.

With most consumers on two-year contracts, and a natural handset replacement cycle that runs two to three years, customers can be moved to LTE as they replace their current WiMAX devices.

The point is that Clearwire has plenty of spectrum, and industry executives have lots of experience with technology transitions. It will take some planning, and some time, but it is a normal and expected part of the business that air interfaces and networks are changed, at least every 10 years, and sometimes sooner, for other business reasons.

LTE Tests Signal Clearwire Is Serious

Will Clearwire Make its 2010 Buildout Goals?

Summer normally is the time of year when landline and wireless construction gets into really high gear. In Clearwire's case, it had better.

Clearwire is racing to add coverage and win customers before Verizon unveils out LTE network in the fourth quarter of this year. At the moment Clearwire might be only half way to meeting its 2010 timetable.

Some of us are anxious for Clearwire to meet its goals, on time. Clearwire might be even more motivated, as the spectrum and speed advantage the company has held over all its other major competitors will be coming to an end relatively soon.

Verizon's LTE network is supposed to be lit, covering 100 million people with Verizon's own fourth-generation network, and taking away much of Clearwire's marketing advantage.

Clearwire isn’t Even Halfway to its 4G Coverage Goals

HTC Evo WiFi Hotspot Function Demo

HTC: Carry a Spare Battery

Sprint Nextel Chief Executive Officer Dan Hesse has a solution for his carrier’s Evo 4G’s infamous battery drain: Carry a spare, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Before you dismiss the idea, consider that a spare, original manufacture HTC Evo battery runs between $25 and $40 online. Those of you who have purchased spare batteries for other smartphones, that might seem a bit steep, but bigger screens and heavy Web use will drain any battery fairly quickly.

In fairness, users who want longer battery life should buy devices with much-smaller screens, and then not use mobile Web features unnecessarily. Battery advances do not occur at the same rate as changes in processor and memory, so the advent of larger screens and mobile Web usage is simply going to be a bigger issue.

Lots of us use, or have used, devices with much-smaller screens, as well as devices more typically used primarily for voice and texting. Battery life is longer on such devices, period. In phone technology, as with other devices, there are trade offs.

The HTC Evo's battery life is noticeably shorter than many would like. That's the price of the bigger screen, for the most part. Would I be willing to trade down to a smaller screen? No. But I routinely carry two mobiles, one primarily for voice, the HTC for Web apps. So in a sense I alrady carry a spare battery.

Screen Shortage Might Last Until 2012

HTC Evo devices are in very short supply at the moment, as are HTC Incredibles, and most likely, HTC Droid X devices as well, as all seem to use the same screens, and there currently is a shortage of capacity to manufacture the screens, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Analysts say there's a particular dearth of the Samsung Electronics Co. touch screens the HTC phones use. Samsung is building a $2.2 billion factory to make the screens, but it won't start operations before 2012.

It is unclear how the parts shortages might affect mobile providers selling the popular HTC devices, in particular Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile, none of which yet has the right to sell the Apple iPhone.

But to the extent all three carriers experience HTC device shortages, it does not seem clear that the relative positions of the three carriers will change, based specifically on ability to sell HTC devices in this class. For Sprint, though, the advantage it had by launching the first nationwide 4G network is dwindling as Verizon Wireless readies its own launch later in 2010.

U.S. Wireless Spectrum to Double?

The amount of wireless spectrum available in the United States would nearly double over the next 10 years as the federal government prepares to gradually auction 500 megahertz of federal and commercial spectrum.

In past decades, new spectrum auctions have been the foundation for potential assaults on industry structure, allowing new contestants to enter the market. Whether that will be the case in the forthcoming auctions remains to be seen.

Clearwire and Sprint have plenty of spectrum, while AT&T and Verizon Wireless are launching new Long Term Evolution networks that are far more spectrally efficient than the third generation networks they will supplement and then replace.

T-Mobile USA needs more 4G spectrum, but probably cannot afford to buy new licenses. The issue is whether any truly-new contestants are willing to take a chance on disrupting the business.

Gov't plans to double available wireless spectrum - Yahoo! News

Samsung Galaxy S to Debut On All 4 Big Carriers

Samsung's flagship Google Android smartphone, Galaxy S, will be available on the AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobileand Verizon Wireless networks.

The Samsung Galaxy S will be called the Samsung Fascinate on Verizon, Samsung Captivate on AT&T, Samsung Vibrant on T-Mobile, and Samsung Epic 4G on Sprint.

Hot Samsung Galaxy S to Debut On Four Big U.S. Carriers - PCWorld

Sprint T-Mobile: New mega-carrier or four-network nightmare?

Though the integration issues would be formidable, Merrill Lynch analysts say T-Mobile USA’s owner Deutsche Telekom might be interested in buying Sprint. But while such a deal might make financial and strategic sense, analysts said Sprint could become an operational nightmare for its new owner.

Merrill Lynch said Sprint’s operational problems might cause it to dramatically cut prices, which would put it in direct competition with T-Mobile USA, which has staked out that position among the big-four U.S. mobile carriers.

A takeover bid, Merrill Lynch analysts suggest, would avert such a price war. A positive: Sprint’s stock is priced low, while Deutsche Telekom could count on relative strength of the Euro.

Of course, the big objection has been the operational complexity. Sprint now operates three distinct networks with different air interfaces. Adding T-Mobile would make four. Ultimately, Long Term Evolution would the unifying air interface for all but the iDen network used by Nextel. But Nextel could be spun off.

It might be a long shot. But nobody thinks the market is stable at the top.

Sprint T-Mobile: New mega-carrier or four-network nightmare?

Will Sprint Buy the Rest of Clearwire?

TownHall Investment Research Analyst Gerard Hallaren says Sprint management has made comments that leading some investors to believe the company iss actively considering a bid for the rest of Clearwire.

"As best we can tell, the speculation is based on a perceived desire by Sprint control its own destiny by owning its 4G network and on synergies created by combining the two companies," says Hallaren.

Some people will contest the notion, as it flies directly against the rest of Sprint's recent initiatives to outsource operations that are not directly customer facing, and concentrate on marketing and customer-facing operations. It is worth noting, however, that Sprint has not acted to divest its actual ownership of facilities, with the exception of tower sites.

The Sprint "4G" marketing platform seems to be getting a lift from the HTC Evo launch, and that appears to be prompting the speculation about whether full ownership of Clearwire (Sprint now owns 57 percent) would add value.

Despite some possible strategic logic, namely the ability to use the Clearwire network anyway it wishes to, there would be obstacles.

Given Sprint's weak financial position, a dilutive equity deal would be required. Hallaren suggests a reverse takeover might be considered.

One issue is that the other Clearwire joint venture partners bought most of their stock at far higher levels, around $17, or $10 higher than the current price.

The public owns only 10 percent of Clearwire, while Intel (11 percent) and Comcast (nine percent) are the largest holders after Sprint. Time Warner owns five percent, Google three percent, Brighthouse one percent, Eagle River four percent.

Perhaps the bigger issue is the different business models. Clearwire is mostly a wholesale provider, though it has some retail operations. Sprint really is a retailer with some wholesale operations. It isn't clear how much more Sprint benefits from increasing its 57-percent stake.

link

Latest Motorola Droid?

It appears Motorola is getting ready to launch the next version of its "Droid" device, called by some the "X," by others the "Shadow." It reportedly features a metal frame, as the iPhone 4 does. The Droid "Xtreme" supposedly features a 4.3-inch screen, as does the HTC Evo, has "HDMI Out,"  as does the Evo, but will ship with Android 2.1, a new version of Motoblur, and a 750Mhz OMAP processor, unlike the 1-GHz processor the Evo ships with.

You might get an argument about screen size. Some argue the X will have a larger screen than the Evo. It doesn't sound like that will be the case, though (not that a 4.3-inch screen is inadequate by any means). Some think the X will have a larger screen than the Evo, but so far the leaks suggest a same-size screen.

Some worry about the overall size of the device, but I haven't noticed the Evo is a problem in the pocket. Lots of people seem to be more adept at typing on a smaller screen, but I'm not one of them, so the larger screen helps when doing data entry. Others notice the heft of the device, as is true of the Motorola Droid, or Incredible. I also don't find that to be an issue.

But that's the whole point of having lots of devices with different form factors, isn't it? We all get to pick devices that make different design trade-offs.

Sprint May Throttle Heavy Roaming Users

Sprint Nextel Corp. says laptop customers using an excessive amount of mobile data while roaming could have their accounts temporarily suspended, though the carrier still doesn't plan to limit the wireless connection for its high-volume smartphone customers, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The key issue here is heavy roaming use, off the core Sprint network, and the primary reason appears to be that Sprint obviously incurs direct incremental costs when users are on partner networks.

Sprint is changing its policies for data service for laptops users with mobile broadband cards or USB modems will not apply to smartphones.

Sprint already has a cap of 5 gigabytes of data usage within the network, and 300 megabytes of roaming data. Starting July 11, excessive data roaming by mobile laptop users could lead to Sprint suspending the off-network service until the customer's next billing cycle, unless the customer opts into a plan with extra charges for off-network usage.

Sprint says it will notify broadband customers by text message or email when they hit 75 percent and 90 percent of the roaming data limit. The plans include 5 cents per megabyte on the Sprint network and 25 cents when roaming.

The threat of suspension doesn't apply to usage on Sprint's 3G network or the 4G network run by partner Clearwire Corp., says Sprint spokesman Mark Elliott. "Sprint does not, nor plan to limit speeds, nor change a customer's ability to use any particular application or Internet site."

Analysts are expecting an industry-wide shift to control the amount of data traffic consumed by users, so the Sprint move is not unexpected, though Clearwire continues to say it will not cap data usage.

The issue is whether the new move will complicate Sprint's "simplicity" and "simply everything" marketing message.

T Mobile USA already has in place policies to throttle users who exceed the 5 gigabyte monthly cap. AT&T has adopted new caps of 200 megabytes and 2 gigabytes.

Verizon Wireless has not yet made any specific announcements about changes.

Scratch Test for HTC Evo

That's one way to test for scratches. Apparently the HTC Evo resists scratches well, but it is unnerving to watch this.

Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G Sold Even Where There is Only 3G

Sales of Sprint Nextel Corp.’s HTV Evo smartphone did well even in markets that don’t yet have access to the company’s new super-fast 4G wireless network, the company’s CFO told analysts Wednesday. Considering there is a $10 monthly surcharge for the 4G network feature, paid by all HTC Evo users, whether they have access to the network or not, that's something.

Bob Brust, appearing at a New York analyst event, said that first-day sales of the HTC EVO 4G on Friday “did really well across the country, not just in 4G areas” and that the Overland Park-based company was “working hard to remedy” a rash of stores that sold out of the devices.

CFO: Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G smartphone sells well in non-4G markets - Kansas City Business Journal