No more Clearwire devices after 2012, Sprint says

[lak611]

It makes perfect sense why the WiMax Playbook got canceled.

NEW YORK -- Sprint Nextel Corp. said Friday that it will stop selling phones and other devices compatible with Clearwire Corp.'s network at the end of next year, after it switches on its own higher-speed, fourth-generation data network.

Sprint is Clearwire's largest customer and majority owner, but doesn't control it. Phones labeled "Sprint 4G" use Clearwire's network today.

Clearwire's stock fell 54 cents, or 26 percent, to $1.51 in midday trading Friday. The shares hit a 52-week low of $1.32 in August. Sprint's stock rose 12 cents, or 4.1 percent, to $3.13.

Sprint's president of network operations, Steve Elfman, told investors and analysts at a meeting in New York that the company is already building its own fourth-generation, or 4G, data network and will inaugurate it next summer. By the end of 2012, it will cover as many people as Clearwire's network does today, and a year later, it will be far larger.

Sprint is using a 4G technology known as LTE, for Long-Term Evolution. Rivals AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless are using the same technology. Clearwire, on the other hand, uses an earlier technology called WiMax. That means today's "Sprint 4G" devices will need to be replaced to use the new LTE network.

Sprint, along with AT&T and Verizon, started taking pre-orders for the iPhone 4S on Friday. It's the first time the struggling carrier has been able to sell the coveted smartphone. The network revamp will help the company support its iPhone users with wireless data, Sprint executives said. However, today's iPhones can use neither Clearwire's 4G network nor Sprint's coming one.

A Clearwire spokesman had no immediate comment.

The radio spectrum that Sprint is using for 4G is being freed up by the shutdown of the Nextel network, a process that's set to be completed by the end of next year.

Sprint bought Nextel in 2005, an acquisition that soon turned disastrous. Nextel subscribers started leaving, and Sprint was saddled with the cost of running two incompatible networks. That has contributed to the company's constant quarterly financial losses since 2007.

"Overall, Sprint appears to be doing the best it can to chart a course forward, but it is starting out significantly hamstrung by decisions made in the past," Ovum analyst Jan Dawson said.

No more Clearwire devices after 2012, Sprint says | cleveland.com

[Rootbrian]

I guess they're changing it up. RIP wimax. Keeping a global, widely used protocol is good enough. Building on it, good idea. Unless I didn't read it right.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[lnichols]

Really sad that Sprint waited so long to get rid of iDen and to ditch wimax. However I don't know if they have the finances for a quick $10 billion network rollout, $20 billion iPhones, etc. I'm surprised the board isn't demanding Hesse's head for the Clearwire cluster.....

[caitlinhenry]

iPhone from Sprint. That's great. I am planning t switch my network from AT&T to Sprint. Just to give a try.

[mystic205]

its no big deal..
1. Converting wimax towers to LTE is relatively simple
2. the new architecture that has been tested IS the correct long term solution
3. Sprint did have 4G a year ahead of the competition and yup, it wasnt perfect or fully available..but VZ LTE is still small too...18 mo later.
4. folks with wimax phones will all be eligible for an upgrade by the time the LTE is fully lit...

WiMax is a ww standard and was more stable than LTE..it is used extensively in plenty of other countries.. so using it gave Sprint a TTM advantage, and all along LTE fallback would have been assumed...

[Grebnehtor]

Good for Sprint. We would have been left in the cold with phone manufacturers worrying about LTE first and WiMax a distant second.