Sprint Accelerates Its 4G Network

Sprint Nextel (S) announced a major nationwide expansion yesterday for its fourth-generation (4G) wireless broadband service as the company plans to launch services in 17 more US cities. This follows Sprint’s recent announcement of launching 4G services in Atlanta, Portland and Las Vegas in August 2009. The company previously announced 4G deployments in Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Seattle and Honolulu during 2009.

The newly announced markets include specific cities in Texas, Washington, Idaho, North Carolina, Oregon and Hawaii. Moreover, the third-largest US wireless carrier also plans to launch 4G services in other US markets such as Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C in 2010. Sprint is deploying its 4G network under the "Sprint 4G" brand based on the WiMax mobile broadband technology.

Sprint made history by becoming the first US carrier to launch 4G WiMax mobile broadband services in the U.S. with the official commercial service launch in Baltimore in early October 2008. The company further strengthened its 4G leadership with the launch of the nation’s first dual-mode (operates on both 3G and 4G networks) mobile broadband modem in December 2008 and the recent rollout of new 3G/4G mobile broadband routers.

The company is leveraging the WiMax network managed and operated by Clearwire Corporation (CLWR), in which it holds a controlling stake of 51%. This joint-venture resulted from the merger of mobile WiMax assets of both companies in December 2008.

Sprint’s 4G services are expected to play a significant role for its survival in the wireless market given the continued market share losses to larger rivals such as Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T).

The 4G wireless broadband network offers customers super-fast network speed which is 3-5 times faster than the existing 3G networks that typically deliver network speeds up to 1.5 megabits per second (Mbps). In contrast, the download speeds enabled by the 4G WiMax network averages 3-6 (Mbps) with peak speed reaching more than 10 Mbps.

However, we feel Sprint’s first-to-market advantage for its 4G services may eventually erode as other Tier-1 carriers launch competing services. Verizon and AT&T have announced aggressive deployment plans for their respective 4G services in 2010-2011 timeframe based on the Long-Term Evaluation (LTE) wireless broadband technology, which is competitive or faster than speeds demonstrated by WiMax deployments.

Comments

[User 471021:]

It really is a question of bandwidth and while Long Term "Evolution" may provide faster speeds in the beginning, it will be by some kind of artifice of electromagnetism such as Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) or the like. WiMax operates at a substantially higher frequency and can therefore eventually "stomp" anything operating at a lower bandwidth/frequency save fiber optic cabling which you can see Verizon and AT&T heavily investing in because they see the ultimate high ground. For "unwired" communications, WiMax IS the ultimate high ground.

Aug 13 09:38 AM

[Geddy:]

@User 471021-not sure where you get your figures from but they're definitely not close to being accurate. Having higher frequency to operate only adds a negligible capacity advantage (2500mhz vs. 700mhz, though very minor). However, 700mhz provides MUCH better penetration rates which in turn means less sites to cover same coverage area. I think people also forget LTE, though only initially available with 700mhz, will be used on VZW & ATT's very significant spectrum holdings in the old 800mhz cellular band as well as 1900mhz PCS holdings.

Aug 13 02:24 PM

[Spectum Hound:]

2.5GHz and 700MHz differ in propagation characteristics more than on speed and capacity. While CLWR's spectrum is very deep, they have to fill it to reap the benefits.

Competing against VZ and AT&T on coverage is going to be tough. Competing against them on price, is going to be suicide.


On Aug 13 09:38 AM User 471021 wrote:

> It really is a question of bandwidth and while Long Term "Evolution"
> may provide faster speeds in the beginning, it will be by some kind
> of artifice of electromagnetism such as Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
> (seekingalpha.com/symbo...) or the like. WiMax operates
> at a substantially higher frequency and can therefore eventually
> "stomp" anything operating at a lower bandwidth/frequency save fiber
> optic cabling which you can see Verizon and AT&T heavily investing
> in because they see the ultimate high ground. For "unwired" communications,
> WiMax IS the ultimate high ground.

Aug 13 06:26 PM

[Nextel Acce...:]

Sprint will have a lot built out by 2010, so LTE will be significantly behind

Aug 13 10:53 PM

[User 471021:]

Geddy and Spectrum Hound both are right on the nose with penetration and propagation issues relative to WiMax as power drops off with the inverse square of the distance a wave has to propagate. Yes this does mean many more towers/antennae but the notion that 2,500,000 million cycles per second is only a minor improvement over 700 million cycles per second is easily arguable. So the challenge now is to prove the statement, "2.5GHz and 700MHz differ in propagation characteristics more than on speed" and "they're definitely not close to being accurate"? I do not intend to call into question neither of these two commentors knowledge or experience.

Aug 14 09:05 AM

[buoy:]

Someday, Sprint will probably be absorbed by T or VZ.

Aug 14 09:19 AM

[Geddy:]

@Nextel Accessories (once a great name in wireless carriers I might add, until assimiliated!), I don't truly believe they'll have much of an advantage in time to market. I have a funny feeling VZW will launch more than just the two markets they claim to be launching in 2009. With VERY deep pockets, they won't be launching just so & so market here, so & so market there...it will be a full market launch which will more than put them past coverage of Clearwire. ATT doesn't need to hurry on LTE as they software only (I believe) upgrade to HSPA+ on existing infrastructure will more than surpass any current WiMax data speed, and will again not be launch "willy nilly" like Clearwire/Sprextel is doing currently.

Aug 14 09:26 PM

[Aryamehr:]

Well lets see Sprint is now offering 4G in Baltimore, Portland, Atlanta, Las Vegas and 10 cities in Texas and Washington with existing 4G platforms. It already is preparing to layout Chicago, Dallas, Honolulu, Philadelphia, Seattle and Charlotte, N.C. to the list by the end of 2009, then New York, Boston, Washington D.C. and the San Francisco Bay Area by 2010 – part of a broader goal to be in 80 markets with 120 million potential customers by the end of next year.

On another note you should know that Wimax is currently used by over 650 million users worldwide and growing.

Geddy, we know how much you hate Sprint but you can't deny the facts.

Aug 15 12:05 PM

[Geddy:]

Admittedly I'm not a big Sprextel fan as I work for a competitor of theirs. What's your story Aryamehr if we're to be honest here, besides being a Sprextel employee?

Again, LTE will surpass WiMax is POPs covered by 2010. It is in every major/reputable publication. Let's also take a look at their numbers recently announced (Clearwire; don't even get me started on Sprint's numbers!); 12,000 net adds with a churn of over 2.6%. That's actually pretty sorry numbers for a carrier.

Aug 15 08:10 PM