Well, what do you know? Sometimes even the most repetitive of
rumors finally comes true. Barely 12 hours after the Wall Street Journal reported that a deal between Sprint, Clearwire (and just about everyone) else was
dangerously close to going down, it seems as if the bottom lines have indeed been signed. Details are pretty light at the moment, but we definitively know that Sprint Nextel Corp. and Clearwire Corp. will be merging their "next-generation wireless broadband businesses to form a new wireless communications company." Quite simply, the new WiMAX-pushing outfit will be called Clearwire, even though Sprint will hold around 51-percent of the firm, while existing Clearwire shareholders will own 27-percent and the new investors will hold 22-percent. New investors? Ah yes, Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks will collectively invest $3.2 billion in the new company, but that figure is "based on a target price of $20 a share of Clearwire's common stock, and is subject to a post-closing adjustment."
[Via
CNN]
posted May 7th 2008 9:25AM
Goodbye Xohm, we hardly even knew you :(
Wimax? I thought that they had scrapped that technology because of satellite interference? Besides, who wants to be connected to a giant neighborhood router?
Um....what do you think your cable modem or DSL modem are connected to? I've been in engineering for a variety of providers for years. Trust me, the WiMAX stuff is no different in that respect.
But, I agree to some extent regarding the life left in WiMAX. I see no future in it for a variety of reasons, which I do not have the time, nor energy, to list out here. From regulatory to technical to market demand, the list goes on and on forever.
Gian
Err...IS connected to...not "are connected to". I sound like a retard. :P
Gian
I can understand where your coming from on the giant router theory, as I would think it would be a pain to find a wimax connection unless its on every cell tower then that would be different but if you can only find it in certain spots then ill be heading for LTE
Uh... people, like me, who lives outside of the Cable/DSL area.
You have no idea how many times I tried to get them to install broadband here. So I am hopeful that WiMax will be able to provide me and rural dwellers high-speed internet. Just because urbanites are connected to everything doesn't mean that the world outside of the big cities are.
WiMax will definitely provide a huge improvement over EVDO (which is what I have right now).
I thought before that WiMAX would be great for the country and maybe it still would be in more ways than one - and at the very least, in the spirit of competitiveness. But for mobile devices, it isn't SIM-based and it doesn't currently have a global perspective, and I'm only interested in devices that give me SIM-flexibility and will work on networks not only in North America, but overseas, as well. As it stands, that only means GSM/HSPA, and in terms of future iterations of SIM-based cellular, LTE.
Although, I'm not certain if other countries who offer GSM/HSPA outside of the States will move forward with LTE, but I know of no other available evolution path for GSM.
Ultimately, I just want something very fast, very flexible, AND very global, and WiMAX doesn't seem to match up with all of that.
Although I wouldn't necessarily say no to it in the meantime if it meant I could connect to it via my laptop and enjoy high speeds anywhere I went inside my own country. It just doesn't sound like what I'd ultimately desire because it's not just all about speed.
I'd so have called the new company SprintWire.
I was hoping for "Clint"
Only a true marketing genius would name a wireless company SprintWire!
When I lived in the dutch west indies, they had a phone company called "Landsradio" - and it was about as efficient as the name was stupid...
Sweet...
Could Sprint be making a comeback?
As much as I rag on them it would be pretty sick to see them pull this off.
Making a comeback? I didn't know they fell down
yeah, i guess they never fell down. just their stock price. and revenue. and customer base. but whatevs.
This will be an incredible venture with mega money behind it. Since Sprint and Clearwire own most of the 2.5Ghz spectrum nationwide, WiMax will be able to be deployed the way it should have been in the first place. Also, this technology will have at least a two year head start over LTE and will make those companies building LTE do an incredible job or this will remain the industry standard for many, many years because they will have all of the customers.
If the engineers and marketing people do their jobs correctly with the new Clearwire, you had better believe that this new company will not only become the industry standard, but it will become an integral way to connect to the Internet.
I really, really like this and since I sell Clearwire, Sprint, Verizon and Comcast in my business, I am looking forward to introducing this technology to all of my customers.
To those of you who are putting this technology down...give it a chance, you all really do not know how this is going to be designed or what is going to happen here. I have been selling wireless Internet since the CDPD days and this new product absolutely promises to become as commonplace as your utility...gas, electric, water, television and Internet. I can only think that this is going to be fantastic for the industry!
I hope your right about WiMaxx. And I hope all of us Sprint cell phone customers won't get shafted too bad in the merger. I just got things back to normal with my Sprint account after they upgraded their billing system. Would hate to have to spend all that time again to get things working like they should.
I question the move towards wi-max only because there are so many other companies saying that LTE is the wave of the future. Wi-max was in Sprint's plans for 4g a looooonnnng time ago, so it only makes sense that they're pot committed and can't change their mind now. For Sprint's sake I just hope that by the time the competitors actually launch their 4g that Sprint has a large part of the market already captured and have wi-max coverage near perfect. Anyone who hopes wi-max fails if a damn fool, because the sooner they launch it, the sooner YOUR carrier will get their ass in gear to launch their 4g....competition benefits the customer!
i don't see why wimax and lte cant coexist side by side. i liken it more to dsl vs cable than hd-dvd vs blu ray
I agree with you Sgt...and remember one additional thing...Clearwire will have at least a two plus year head start to deploy this technology into mainstream computers in the 50 states and Canada before LTE even gets out of their diapers...and that is if it does because LTE will have to go through the same buildout that WiMax has already gone through. We do not even know if LTE will work in the real world...and the rest of the country will be using WiMax.
Another thing people have to be aware of is that Clearwire is already in several markets in Europe, Mexico, South America and Asia. I think Craig McCaw's dream is about to come true here and those people who are waiting for LTE will have to either keep waiting or they will all accept and use the new Clearwire technology.
According to what I have read here, it certainly looks like Clearwire will control the marketing and Sprint the technology...but we will see what will happen over the next year. Also, to all of you speculators out there, you should give this one a chance...I think you will all become believers and users of Clearwire once it is deployed in your area as a WiMax product.
Anyway you look at it, we are all about to become a part of history here and I am very excited about the prospects!
agreed. i've used wimax in my market and it is smooth. driving around town, i maintained a strong signal and didn't see any hiccups in my youtube viewing. of course, i was limitied to a pretty small portion of my area, but this was in the infancy of the whole thing. wimax is pretty awesome for those who will be able to use it.
"Well, what do you know? Sometimes even the the most repetitive of rumors finally comes true."
Well if thats the case, where is my blu-ray drive for my Xbox360?
Just join the darkside and be done with it :thumbsup:
@Jonathan Keim
I could, but why buy a PS3 just to watch blu-ray? Give me an official add on drive like the defunct HD-DVD drive for under $200 and I'm golden.
does anyone know what kind of capacity wimax will be able to handle? i understand the projected download/upload speeds, but how much traffic can wireless high speed take? i mean, with the involvement of cable companies who will more than likely push out mobile tv to combat dish networks, will wimax be able to handle that? with millions of users streaming videos and downloading the pr0n, will we be seeing 1kbps?
I hear rumors of fiber connections to the towers to maintain Quality of Service.
Well this kinda explains the rumored spin off of Nextel by Sprint, they found somebody else to jump in bed with and waste billions of dollars.
This is horrible.
Why? 2 reasons:
1) More DIFFERENT technology: If you look at the history of cell companies, Sprint in particular, the integration of different technologies is a huge set back. Basically, take Sprint a long time ago. It started off with CDMA tech. Great move on Sprint's part, even if they had so much difficulty initially, it ended up being a good move. That's the only reason Sprint is still around at all. When they then tried to integrate Nextel technology, they gave themselves a huge headache. Bad idea. They have two different technologies to maintain and keep implemented and it's already caused them too much trouble. Integrating wimax as well, for any other cell company, might be an OK move. But for Sprint, VERY bad move. They already are suffering and this will really kick them under, and in my opinion:
2) the future of Sprint depends on them making themselves look good. Not to us the blog readers and subscribers, but to other companies. T-Mobile buying Sprint?? Fantastic. If T-Mobile can buy Sprint at a price that is low enough it pays to simply buy the spectrum, then maybe T-Mobile could roll the current subscriber base of Sprint over to their networks and technology. MAYBE T-mobile would integrate nextel tech, or maybe let it fall to the wayside. But if Sprint tried to get WiMax going, then T-Mobile would have to integrate WiMax, and Nextel, AND Sprint's already failing company. Horrible move on Sprint's part to try to get WiMax
Sprint has been holding on to this valuable 2.5Ghz spectrum since 1986. Now with WiMax, they have something valuable they can do with it. Sprint is not going away...Sprint will still sell cellphones and service. Sprint is just spinning off it's WiMax division and not taking all of the heat and financial responsibility of forming a new company. The other players in the mix...Comcast, Google, Time Warner, Intel, et al will be footing the bill and Sprint is going to own 51% of this new company...
I think Sprint and Clearwire took a very smart approach to this because all they have to do is to share their resources and run this company and introduce and sell the technology...with the other investor's money...I say just the opposite...
GREAT JOB SPRINT AND CLEARWIRE! And I sincerely hope this new technology is the technology you and I have been waiting for...in Engadget, all of us should be very excited to watch this evolve and participate in the evolution...I know I will because I am going to get to profit from it both physically by using the product and financially by selling it...I have been waiting for this to happen since 2004 and I really like what I see here. If you knew what I know about what is going to happen, you would like it too!
When can I sign up? I am sick to death of dial-up, my only option here. Well there is satellite... yeah, right, sure. This will be the technology for people outside of major metropolitan areas to finally get connected to the modern world. Time to get the Ma Bell monkey off my back. And take your 60+ year old phone lines with you.
Everything sprint touches goes to ruin, it was nice knowing you clearwire
that's not true.
*chirp chirp*
oh yeah, i guess so.
but you have to give sprint some props. they're not going down without a fight. for a cdma carrier, some of the phones they have slated to come out are pretty amazing. the htc devices, the instinct and even the palm800w are all buzzworthy to me. their data is the best in the industry. their phone coverage really has improved (which looking at where it was really isn't saying much). the only thing that they really have to do is to improve customer service and somehow improve their public perception. unfortunately sprint has earned such a bad rep that the only way for them to change it is to come out with something revolutionary. people aren't going to be able to tell if the network has improved if they're staying away.
for a cdma carrier? did you know 3g is an evolution of CDMA? Granted ATT/Cingular still have EDGE support built in for the slow to upgrade subscribers, but the 3g they use is no longer FDMA
Here is a very interesting article which might assist those of you naysayers in understanding the potential uses for WiMax and what the new Clearwire role will be with the new technology:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080507/ap_on_hi_te/wimax_consumers_2
We have this technology in Canada already. The only problem is the speeds are not nearly as fast as they are going to be with Sprint. Also we have no PC cards. You actually need to tug around a modem and plug it in to use the Wimax service. We definatly need improvements up here in the north! I think Bell has enough spectrum to at least boost the speeds.
We’re very excited by the news. The partnership will allow Clearwire to expand its footprint and deliver new and innovative services to our customers. Through these partnerships with Sprint and others, Clearwire will be the leader in delivering true mobility - the Internet where you want it, when you want it. I’m sorry I do not have any more information for you, on our website at click the “Transaction” tab if you have any questions. Thank you.
That's from the live chat with Marie Josephine and clearwire. Maybe it will hit my town now :D
I got $10 on bandwidth moderation! Let's go with... 10-15GB/month.
I can't wait for this service to be launched in the D.C. Metro Area later this year. 3mbit/1.5mbit mobile internet for somewhere between 10 - 20$? Sign me up!
Looks like DIGIS is going to get its arse handed to it in my area. Say goodbye to the little guy who is close to competing with Comcast and here comes SprintWire :S