Sprint is moving away from WiMAX and switching to LTE for 4G service — but its plans won't be realized until 2013. The carrier has been behind the 8 ball after Verizon and AT&T beat it to the punch on LTE, but it's playing catch up by partnering with LightSquared and possibly Clearwire to ensure it can make the switch.
Sprint's LTE transition
Dispatches from the heartland: there's no Sprint LTE in Kankakee, Illinois
Last month, The Wall Street Journal ran a story that the Illinois town of Kankakee — separated from Chicago by roughly 60 miles of suburbia and farmland — was "the only spot Sprint will name where [LTE] is up and running."
There's only one problem: I can't find it.
My suspicions were first aroused in a conversation with a Sprint spokesperson last week, who was not familiar with the story and said that she was unaware of any commercially operating LTE towers for the carrier anywhere in the...
Clearwire reports Q1 earnings, launching TD-LTE in early 2013 in 31 'hot zones': New York, LA, Chicago, and more
Clearwire is preparing to upgrade its 2.5GHz WiMAX network to support a variant of LTE, TD-LTE, that it's co-developing with China Mobile — and the broadband wholesaler has just announced that it'll kick off that upgrade in 31 "hot zones" where wireless service is most crunched. Most of those markets have yet to be announced, but it has teased five today: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle, all of which are expected to start going live in early 2013; "remaining...
Sprint sells 1.5 million iPhones in Q1, cuts net losses to $863 million
Sprint managed to cut its net losses to $863 million last quarter, while adding more than 1.1 million new customers to its network. It highlights the iPhone as a big seller: having sold 1.8 million of the devices in Q4 last year, it shifted a further 1.5 million in Q1 2012, 44 percent of which were to new customers. The company has also seen growth in postpaid customers — a net growth of 263,000 in the network last quarter alone, with each spending an average of $4.03 more than last year....
Galaxy Nexus coming to Sprint on April 22nd for $199.99, includes a $40 Google Wallet credit
We've been waiting for a release date since CES, but it's finally official — the Galaxy Nexus is coming to Sprint on April 22nd for $199.99 when you sign a new two-year contract. As an incentive to get new buyers using Google's mobile payment system, the Sprint Galaxy Nexus will come with $50 in cold, hard cash into your Google Wallet, provided you activate by May 22nd. Google already offers $10 instant credit when people activate Google Wallet, so new buyers will get an additional $40 over...
Sprint will replace iDEN network with LTE by 2014
Sprint will deploy LTE on its 800MHz network by 2014, according to Bob Azzi, senior vice president of networks. In a briefing at the carrier's corporate headquarters in Kansas Azzi told reporters that the move is yet to be approved by the FCC, but the process has already begun and should proceed smoothly. First preparations for the switch to LTE will take place this year when Sprint decommission 9,600 iDEN cell sites — one third of its total iDEN network — with the rest to follow in 2013....
LG Viper 4G launching April 22nd on Sprint, pre-orders start today
The race between the LG Viper 4G and Samsung Galaxy Nexus to become Sprint's first LTE phone isn't over yet, but at least now we know when one of those phones will be released. Today, Sprint announced that the Viper will be available on April 22nd, and customers who pre-order one starting today could get it as soon as April 20th. The mid-range phone is selling for $99.99 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate, and will run Android 2.3 on a 4-inch screen.
As we saw earlier,...
Sprint confirms unlimited 4G data on new LTE network
Earlier today Sprint announced April 12th preorders for the LG Viper 4G, one of its first LTE devices to come to market. Sprint's renowned for being one of the few to still offer unlimited data on its WiMAX network, and TechHog noticed that Sprint's press release contains the phrase "pairing innovative technology with the Sprint 4G LTE network and unlimited data plans, LG Viper 4G LTE..." essentially confirming that the unlimited trend would continue on LTE. After they posted their findings, T...
Sprint's target 2014 4G LTE coverage map revealed
In a speech at the Rural Cellular Association's Spring Expo in Orlando, a Sprint executive flashed the above slide and Sascha Segan of PCMag snagged a shot of it. What you're looking at is a map of Sprint's 4G LTE coverage circa 2014, when it intends to have completed its "Network Vision" plan. Areas in dark green represent direct LTE coverage while the light blue would be handled by roaming agreement. It's a rosy picture of a nationwide network, especially since the company has yet to launch...
Clearwire's LTE network to be deployed over 5,000 cell sites by June 2013
Clearwire has announced that its LTE network is on schedule to be deployed on 5,000 cell sites come June of next year, with a total of 8,000 not too long after. Late last year when Clearwire was in danger of defaulting on its debts, it received "up to $350 million" from Sprint to help build its LTE network so long as it could achieve unspecified buildout targets. Thankfully for Clearwire, its new plans will fulfill those requirements, according to comments made during the company's quarterly...
Google launches Sprint Galaxy Nexus information sign-up page
We first heard about the Galaxy Nexus coming to Sprint through a poorly-timed advertisement, but the carrier made the device official several days later. What we still don't know is when the phone will be launching, but things appear to be moving closer: Google has gone live with a sign-up page for those interested in picking up the latest Android flagship. The Galaxy Nexus will be part of Sprint's first wave of LTE devices, coming after the carrier decided to abandon further development of...
Sprint is done with WiMAX phones, seeing little enthusiasm for Windows Phone
At CES 2012, Sprint's David Owens has revealed that his company doesn't plan on releasing any further WiMAX smartphones. Sprint was the only major US carrier to fully invest itself into WiMAX as its 4G mobile broadband strategy, but it has recently decided to switch lanes and move ahead with an LTE rollout. A natural part of this transition is to abandon the old and welcome the new, which Sprint commenced with the introduction of its first LTE phones here at CES, and is now continuing by...
Sprint's first 4G LTE markets: Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio by mid-2012
Sprint's Dan Hesse has just announced the first cities to benefit from the Now Network's new LTE service. Those will be Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, all four receiving some legit 4G by the middle of 2012. The official tweet that revealed the 4G news also discloses that there'll be 3G network upgrades for those four markets, though no further details were disclosed. The odds are good that this has to do with Sprint's deployment of 1X Advanced (a more spectrally efficient form of...
Sprint deploys first LTE tower cluster in Illinois
In keeping with its plan to open up LTE networks next year, Sprint announced yesterday that its first LTE tower cluster — located in Kankakee, Illinois — is now operational, and some field testing has been completed. The towers are the first in a network that Sprint hopes will cover 250 million Americans by 2013, augmenting (and ultimately replacing) its current WiMAX 4G offerings. Although WiMAX will continue to be supported through 2015, Sprint has partnered with 4G company LightSquared...
Sprint LTE phones to be released in second half of 2012
In an interview with UBS yesterday, Sprint CFO Joe Euteneuer revealed that his company plans to introduce its first LTE-capable handsets in the latter half of 2012. More specifically, he identifies the third quarter as the likeliest time for launch, while also pointing out that Sprint will have "a number of different models" that will offer mobile broadband speeds that "will be very competitive to what's already out on the marketplace." Joe also announced that Sprint's first multimodal base...
Clearwire paying its bills, gets new WiMAX and LTE commitments from Sprint
It was down to the wire whether Clearwire would pay the interest due on outstanding debt today — the company had previously said that it was considering its options for going into default, but all is well this morning on news that the network operator is getting a fresh infusion of cash and commitments from majority owner Sprint that help it pay off the $237 million due today.
What exactly is Sprint offering? As part of its transition to LTE, Sprint ultimately plans to phase out WiMAX...
Sprint may help fund Clearwire's LTE transition
It was just three days ago that we pointed out that Clearwire needed to sort out its business relationship with Sprint in a big hurry if it wanted to secure its long-term future. Today, we have a sign that is likely to happen, as Sprint has announced it intends make a private note offering to secure funds for various purposes like paying off outstanding debt, expanding its own network, and perhaps most importantly, "potential funding of Clearwire Corporation."
Sprint has embarked on an a...
Sprint gains customers, posts loss in Q3 2011 results; promises LTE-Advanced in 2013
Sprint has released its third quarter, 2011 financial results. As is usually the case with the carrier, it posted a net loss: $301 million on revenue of $8.15 billion. However, Sprint did manage to add a total of 1.3 million new subscribers for the quarter, though only 304,000 of those were postpaid customers — the rest made up of prepaid and wholesale and affiliate additions.
That's the company's best rate of new customers in five years and it came before the release of the iPhone 4S on...
Clearwire: 'Sprint remains dependent' on it for 4G service
Clearwire's name came up on numerous occasions over the course of Sprint's network strategy conference today, and for good reason: they share a WiMAX network that Sprint looks poised to replace with an LTE network of its own over time. To that end, Clearwire has just released a statement saying that "nothing about today's announcement" changes the fact that "Sprint remains dependent" on it for 4G service:
As the largest wholesaler of 4G capacity, with unmatched spectrum, Clearwire is...
Sprint: WiMAX support will continue through 2012, ‘nothing to announce’ beyond that
Though Sprint is pushing hard on its just-announced LTE rollout, there are already plenty of WiMAX devices in the company's hardware portfolio - and to that end, CEO Dan Hesse and his executives are assuring that WiMAX support will continue in full through 2012. Beyond that, the picture is a little murkier - the company doesn't have an active agreement in place with Clearwire, but Hesse isn't yet saying exactly how (or if) WiMAX will ultimately be phased out. For its part, Clearwire - which...
Sprint planning ‘aggressive LTE rollout’ by 2013
At a press conference in New York today, Sprint has announced that it will be launching an LTE network covering 800 and 1900MHz spectrum in addition to 1600MHz bandwidth in partnership with LightSquared (pending FCC approval in light of the GPS interference concerns). Sprint describes the deployment as "rapid" with the first markets expected to go live in mid-2012 and a full rollout in 2013. At that time, Sprint expects to cover 250 million Americans with LTE service - that compares to 120...
Clearwire pulls the trigger, lays out plan to launch LTE
Clearwire has finally gone ahead and announced that it'll be deploying LTE, which comes as no big surprise -- it's been running technology trials since last year, demonstrating cleanroom speeds as high as 120Mbps. The exact timeline for getting this live and in consumer's hands is unclear for a few reasons, though: first off, Clearwire notes that the plan is "subject to additional funding," and secondly, the technology would become one of Clearwire's wholesale offerings to other carriers --...
