Sprint And Dish To Trial LTE 4G Broadband To Homes

Sprint today announced that it is partnering with Dish Networks to offer LTE 4G-based broadband in Corpus Christi, Texas. Dish will be responsible for installing the satellite dish and in-home networking gear, and Sprint will deliver TDD-LTE via its 2.5GHz spectrum. Sprint expects the trial to be up and running by the middle of 2014. The companies will consider expanding the service to other markets depending on the success of the trial. Clearwire, which Sprint now owns, offered similar in-home broadband service over its WiMax network.

Dish Reevaluates Attempt To Buy Sprint

Dish Networks today offered an update on its bid to acquire Sprint. According to Dish, Sprint's recent legal actions have caused Dish to reevaluate its plans moving forward. It will drop its proposed acquisition of Sprint and will instead concentrate on acquiring Clearwire. "While Dish continues to see strategic value in a merger with Sprint, the decisions made by Sprint to prematurely terminate our due diligence process and accept extreme deal protections in its revised agreement with SoftBank, among other things, have made it impracticable for Dish to submit a revised offer by the June 18th deadline imposed by Sprint. We will consider our options with respect to Sprint, and focus our efforts and resources on completing the Clearwire tender offer." Sprint filed a lawsuit against Dish on Monday seeking to block its bid to acquire Clearwire, calling the proposal illegal.


Source: Dish

Clearwire Expected To Accept Dish's Offer

Despite Sprint's continued protest against Dish's cash offer to acquire as much of Clearwire as possible at $4.40 per share, Clearwire looks to be nearing a decision to accept it. Sources familiar with the matter tell The Wall Street Journal that the special committee at Clearwire assigned with assessing the current offer from Dish will advise the rest of the company's board to push back a Thursday shareholder vote in order to accept Dish's cash offer for the company. Previous arguments from Sprint that the deal is not in the best interest of the company nor is it legally possible given the governance structure demands from Dish (which call for board member appointments as a term) still remain, adding to the confusion. Sprint claims that its previous agreements with Clearwire, and a restructuring of the company in 2008, conflict strongly with the demands Dish has on its offer.

Dish and Clearwire don't seem to be bothered by the potential structural issues of the deal, and have explained as such to Sprint previously. If Clearwire is to accept Dish's offer whether it be with revised governance terms or not it would have to be for at least 25-percent of the company to make any meaningful difference for Dish's plans to block Sprint's buyout of Clearwire. Sprint needs a majority of the minority shareholders to approve its plan to buyout the rest (49.5-percent) of the company it doesn't already own, something that simply won't happen if Dish controls that majority share.

Sprint Improves Clearwire Bid, Says Its 'Best And Final Offer'

Sprint entered into an agreement to buy the remaining 50 percent of Clearwire that it doesn't already own for $2.97 per share, or around $2.2 billion. This morning Sprint announced that it's decided to up its bid to $3.40 per share, putting Clearwire at a value of $10.7 billion. Sprint says that this is its "best and final offer" for Clearwire and that it's bid is the "best strategic alternative" for Clearwire and its shareholders.

This improved Sprint bid bests the offer that Dish Network made for Clearwire in January 2013, which was set at $3.30 per share. While it remains to be seen which offer Clearwire will ultimately take, things definitely appear to be leaning in Sprint's favor. Not only does Sprint now have the higher bid, it also has the support of Clearwire's Special Committee and its board of directors. What's more, Sprint says that it's been told by Comcast, Intel and Bright House Networks that they all plan to vote their shares of Clearwire in favor of Sprint's merger. Those three companies own a total of approximately 26 percent of Clearwire.

Source: Sprint

Google Builds New Experimental Wireless Network

Earlier this month, Google filed paperwork with the FCC to build a secret LTE wireless network on its Mountain View campus in California, which covers a radius of about two miles. The network will consist of 50 base stations, operating in the 2.5GHz frequency band – the same spectrum that Clearwire uses. Up to 200 “user devices” will initially be allowed on this network.

Obviously, this puts a whole new spin on rumors that have been swirling around for a long time concerning a possible Google foray into wireless service. What’s interesting about this latest finding, though, is that it appears Google might be partnering with Clearwire, since it’s using spectrum that almost no other carrier in the world has. It is highly unlikely that Google would be building devices that use this specific and obscure spectrum, unless Google was planning on doing something big with it.

A Google Clearwire partnership might also throw a huge kink into Sprint’s plans to acquire a 100% stake in Clearwire. However, at the same time, Dish did outbid Sprint, and Dish and Google were said to be in talks about a possible partnership. Could this latest FCC filing be a sign of things starting to fall in place for Google’s potential new wireless service?

Source: Pocketables

Dish Network Seeks To Halt FCC Review Of Sprint-Softbank Deal

Dish Networks today filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission asking it to pause its review of Softbank's proposed equity acquisition of Sprint. Dish wants issues concerning its competitive bid for Clearwire to be resolved first. Last year, Softbank, Japan's second-largest wireless network operator, proposed to purchase a 70% stake in Sprint for about $20 billion. Hoping to simplify terms of the deal, Sprint later proposed to acquire the remainder of Clearwire, in which it already holds a majority stake, for $2.97 per share. Dish Networks threw a wrench into Sprint's plans by making its own bid for Clearwire last week, offering $3.30 per share. According to Dish, "With competing offers for Clearwire in place, premature Commission evaluation of Sprint’s initial offer could undermine the Commission’s policy objective of neutrality in takeover contests by giving SoftBank and Sprint a very real advantage in the corporate valuation process." Dish has been looking for a way to enter the wireless network market for years, and is hoping a deal with Clearwire could make that happen.

+Christopher Hamilton

Clearwire Joins The Rural Carrier Association

Clearwire recently announced that it has become the latest member of the Rural Carrier Association. The RCA, which is composed of carriers with fewer than 80 million subscribers, also counts Sprint and T-Mobile as members. The RCA believes that Clearwire shares concerns with its more-than 100 carrier members. 

Clearwire joined the RCA to help advocate for wireless competition.

HTC EVO V 4G Will Launch May 31 On Virgin Mobile

Previous rumors regarding a launch of the HTC EVO 3D on prepaid Sprint MVNO Virgin Mobile have now been confirmed. The device will be rebranded the HTC EVO V 4G and take advantage of Virgin Mobile's new 4G Beyond Talk plans.

The prepaid carrier will make use of Sprint and Clearwire's WiMAX network to offer unlimited 4G data, along with unlimited text and 300 voice minutes, all for $35/month. The device will sell for $299.99 with no commitment.

Interestingly enough, Sprint implies in its press release that the EVO V 4G will launch with Ice Cream Sandwich and Sense 3.6. Hopefully, this means that Sprint-branded EVO 3D handsets will also receive the update before May 31.

Best Buy Connect To Disconnect On June 1st

It is just short of two years since Best Buy launched its mobile broadband service, Best Buy Connect. Apparently, Best Buy has decided to abruptly pull the plug on the service completely.

New activations will cease effective immediately and the service will be shut down completely on June 1st.  Obviously, all early terminations fees will be waived. WiMAX 4G customers will have the option to transition their service to CLEAR.

Existing customers whose accounts are in good standing will receive a $125 or $150 gift card, depending on their service, by email on April 27th to help offset the cost of finding a new provider. Those with overdue accounts that address the balance will receive their gift cards on June 20th.

Best Buy simply states that it feels it “can achieve greater growth by delivering mobile broadband support in ways other than an exclusive Best Buy-branded service.”

Clearwire Launching TD-LTE In Early 2013

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 markets" will come online by the middle of the year.

Sprint, which owns a significant chunk of Clearwire, is underwriting a portion of the company's LTE upgrade costs and is expected to take advantage of the service once it's available. In the meantime, it's using both 1900MHz and freed 800MHz iDEN spectrum for its initial LTE deployment (which is using the more common FDD flavor shared by Verizon, AT&T, and others).

The news comes as Clearwire has announced its Q1 2012 earnings which tell a mixed tale it wasn't long ago that the company nearly missed making interest payments on its debt, and it's got a long way to go to become a profitable organization. Revenue is up 36 percent year over year to $322.6 million from 11 million subscribers, up from 6.1 million a year prior; that's good, but revenue is actually down about $39 million from Q4 2011. Overall, it chalked up an operating loss of some $422.9 million, slightly better than last quarter's $433.1 million. Importantly, cash on hand is on an upward trend: it's now at $1.433 billion between cash, cash equivalents, and investments, likely thanks in no small part to a capital infusion from Sprint.

Should Sprint Buy Clearwire

 

We’re wondering if it would be in the Now Network’s best interest is to flat out buy the wireless internet wholesaler Clearwire? With Clearwire's plans for TD-LTE, Clearwire could possibly be the boost that Sprint needs to get the Now Network upgrades up and running "now". 


Feel free to share your thoughts about Sprint and their relationship with Clearwire via the comments below. 

Cricket Signs Five-Year Clearwire LTE Deal

 

Clearwire is currently in the process of migrating from WiMAX to LTE, but there was a slight bump in the road when Google announced at the end of February it was selling its existing stock in the company, well below the market value. The 6.5% stake was sold for $47 million at $1.60 a share, below the $2.27 asking price at the time. Clearwire has today announced a new partnership with Cricket, which will see the budget wireless provider making use of Clearwire’s LTE network when it’s eventually built.

Cricket began rolling out LTE in December 2011, starting off in Tucson, Arizona. So far the company only supports USB modems, but with the latest move from Clearwire, could see some LTE smartphones on its network. Cricket are set to utilize Clearwire’s LTE network as part of a five-year deal. They’re the second company to make use of Clearwire’s LTE network so far.

Of course, Clearwire’s LTE network isn’t even live yet: the hope is to have 5,000 cell sites live by June 2013, then build towards 8,000 sites. Cricket are hoping to expand LTE coverage to around 60% of its exisiting network coverage, which should be helped significantly by Clearwire’s LTE network when it does eventually go live.

Eric Prusch, President and CEO of Clearwire said:

This long-term partnership with Cricket is a key step forward in the development of Clearwire’s wholesale LTE business model. We are very pleased to provide Cricket with additional mobile broadband resources to supplement their own LTE build and we plan to continue to actively seek new opportunities to serve the needs of other 4G providers.

Neither company has outlined the financial terms of the deal, however.

Google Takes a $453 Million Loss, Sells Its Ownership Stakes In Clearwire

Things just don't look too good for Clearwire. Even though the HTC EVO 4G was America's first 4G phone, and made use of Clearwire's 4G network, WiMAX never really seemed to catch on. To make matters worse, as Clear's finances became murkier, the 4G rollout came to a screeching halt and left lots of EVO users behind on Sprint's sometimes-awesome-sometimes-terrible 3G network.

And now, the latest news is that Google is selling its ownership stake in the company and will take around a $453 million loss. (Google originally invested about $500 million in the company, and is selling its shares for $47 million.) And Google's lack of confidence in the company is obviously affecting others' confidence in the company, as it closed down almost 7% Friday afternoon.

Reports Claim Sprint’s LTE Will Run On 1900MHz Only

                    

Sprint has been aggressively pushing its “Network Vision” strategy, with a big center piece of it being its proposed 15-year partnership with LightSquared. Now, a spokesperson for the third largest carrier in the United States revealed to PhoneScoop in an interview that all its LTE devices will run on 1900MHz spectrum. The Now Network has been on a roller coaster as of late, the company recently extended the deadline of its LightSquared deal to then put it on hold, awaiting a final decision from DC.

For the time being, Sprint’s 1900MHz spectrum will handle both the carrier’s current CDMA voice/data network and future LTE data network. The spokesperson also made it clear that Clearwire will not, however, expand its WiMax network beyond what it already covers and will eventually transition to LTE.

This would suggest that if the FCC rejects Sprint’s agreement with LightSquared, the company’s ambitious goal of rolling out its forthcoming Long Term Evolution 4G will be doomed or at least temporarily brought to a screeching halt. As evident with the spokesperson’s comments, the Now Network needs this deal to pass. We can’t see why the government wouldn’t pass a deal that’ll not only help save these companies a bunch of money, but extend 4G services to millions of customers.

Sprint Announces First Four LTE Markets

Sprint's making the jump from Wimax to LTE in 2012 (Wimax will continue to work for some time), and CEO Dan Hesse just annouced the first markets for the new brand of 4G. They are:

• Atlanta
• Dallas
• Houston
• San Antonio

Clearwire scores $715.5 million

                

Clearwire’s a bit of a funny compny. Sprint has a majority stake in them, yet they treat Clearwire like they’re some sort of distant relative that’s not really a relative at all. Thing is Sprint can’t actually function with Clearwire because Clearwire is responsible for delivering Sprint’s WiMAX network, the one that Sprint called 4G before Americans even heard the term 4G. Now the sad thing about WiMAX is that it doesn’t really deliver the kind of speeds that you’d actually call 4G. T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network runs faster. Verizon’s LTE network is faster. Even AT&T’s insanely congested 3G network is faster. Clearwire clearly knows this,and they’ve said that they’re going to transition to LTE. Said transition doesn’t come cheap however, so the company recently tried to secure some funding by offering some shares. The market took the bait and Clearwire is now $715.5 million richer. It should be noted that Sprint is responsible for $331.4 million of that. Erik Prusch, the CEO of Clearwire, had this to say about the new round of funding:

“This equity raise is a critical step for Clearwire to achieve its long-term business plan of creating the first wide-channel TDD-LTE 4G network in the U.S. The added resources will enable us to continue delivering 4G mobile broadband service to meet the rapidly growing demand in the industry. We remain ideally and uniquely positioned to serve both wholesale and retail customers well into the future.”

So when will this network be up and running and just how fast will it be? Sprint’s saying that everything should be good to go by the second half of 2012. And as for the speed, back in January Clearwire uploaded a video showing a test LTE network they setup delivering 90 Mbps down and 30 Mbps up. Here’s hoping they can actually deliver on that, because the 5 Mbps to barely 10 Mbps on a good day they’re delivering now just doesn’t cut it.

Sprint gives Clearwire $1.6 billion golden parachute

LTE may be Sprint's future network of choice, but WiMAX will be with us for a while longer. Clearwire provides the Now Network's waves of WiMAX, but it's had recent financial troubles that it claimed could prevent it from making a required $237 million interest payment due today. However, Sprint has come to Clearwire's rescue by agreeing to pay $926 million to keep the WiMAX network running through 2015. It also pledged to kick in $350 million to help fund the firm's shift to LTE, plus another $347 million in equity funding if Clearwire can raise more than $400 million on its own. 

Verizon scores new spectrum from SpectrumCo in the tune of $3.6 billion

Verizon has a pretty serious head start in the LTE race. To make sure it stays at the front of the pack, Big Red has entered an agreement with SpectrumCo (a joint venture between Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House) that sees 122 AWS spectrum licenses transferred to the carrier for $3.6 billion and some commercial agreements. The deal will allow the companies to become authorized retailers for each others products, eventually giving the cable companies the ability to offer Verizon Wireless service as wholesalers. For its part, the House that Droid Built scores a boat load of new spectrum that may become crucial in expanding its network and ensuring that speeds don't drop off significantly as more customers transition to 4G. Check out the full PR after the break.

Update: Wondering how this impending love affair affects Comcast and Time Warner's existing deals reselling Clear's mobile broadband? Per CNET, not great, as the duo will gradually shift those using the WiMax provider to alternatives in the next six months.

Is Clearwire facing bankruptcy

Clearwire may be in a heap of trouble. The wireless carrier is planning to strategically delay paying a $237 million debt payment that is due December 1st says a Wall Street Journal report. The payment would put a significant dent in the company’s cash reserves and hurt future expansion plans. The WiMAX company currently has about $698 million in cash and short-term investments that it needs to invest wisely if its 4G network is going to compete with Verizon and AT&T.

Clearwire has a 30-day grace period to make the payment which gives it some breathing room. Chief Executive Erik Prusch is reportedly going to use that time to secure more funding and sign new service deals. Delaying the payment is a last ditch effort to keep the company afloat and what happens in the next month may decide the company’s future..

To  make matters worse, Clearwire’s future with Sprint is uncertain. Sprint owns 54% of Clearwire and is using WiMAX as its 4G solution. Recently, Sprint said it was considering a switch to LTE, the major competitor to Clearwire’s WiMAX network. Sprint also agreed to carry the iPhone, a handset that is not and probably never will be compatible with WiMAX.

Though Clearwire did not mention it, the Wall Street Journal Report did bring up the “B” word – bankruptcy. If Clearwire fails to come up with this payment, the company may be forced to file for bankruptcy so it can restructure its debts. A person familiar with Sprint said the carrier would not buy out Clearwire just to keep it out of bankruptcy. Without the backing of Sprint, Clearwire’s future looks dim.

Clearwire inks wholesale deal with NetZero's United Online

Mobile WiMAX carrier Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) announced a five-year wholesale deal with United Online, the company behind the NetZero Internet service brand, extending its wholesale umbrella at a time when it is shuttering its own branded postpaid service.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. NetZero customers will be able to access Clearwire's network in early 2012, though the companies did not say exactly when the service will become available.

Clearwire and United Online said that consumers will be able to access the service by purchasing either a NetZero USB modem or a NetZero personal hotspot that can connect up to 8 Wi-Fi enabled devices simultaneously. Clearwire's network currently covers around 130 million POPs. Clearwire spokesman Mike DiGioia directed questions on pricing, availability and devices to a United Online spokesman, who declined to comment.

NetZero started in 1998 offering free dial-up Internet, and in 2003 it launched NetZero Hi-Speed, which was the fastest dial-up service offered at that time. However, NetZero is clearly looking to expand, and noted Clearwire's WiMAX network provides speeds of 6 to 10 Mbps with a wider range than Wi-Fi.

Clearwire's NetZero deal comes after Clearwire disclosed that it will streamline its Clear-branded service to offer unlimited prepaid Internet service at $50 per month. The move essentially removes its previous postpaid service plan options along with device leasing, activation fees, early termination fees and restocking fees.

Moreover, Clearwire plans to move to LTE-Advanced network technology, but that action is contingent on the carrier obtaining another $600 million in financing. Further, the carrier has said it needs between $150 million and $300 million to maintain its existing WiMAX network.

Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S), Clearwire's majority owner and largest wholesale customer, recently announced its own 4G plans that involve building its own LTE network on its 1900 MHz spectrum--plans that did not include any mention of Clearwire. However, Sprint recently disclosed a non-binding agreement with Clearwire under which the companies will work to develop LTE roaming between their planned networks. Clearwire reports its third-quarter earnings after the market closes Wednesday.