Seeking Alpha
Seeking Alpha Portfolio App for iPad
Finance
(1)
Market Currents

Sprint (S) has brought its LTE network to Indianapolis and 5 other markets, and expanded...

  • Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 1:05 PM ET
    Sprint (S) has brought its LTE network to Indianapolis and 5 other markets, and expanded coverage in the Chicago area. The carrier, which is scrambling to catch up to Verizon and AT&T, says it now has 49 markets covered. Also, Sprint has disclosed Clearwire (CLWR) will receive a $120M termination fee if the SoftBank (SFTBF.PK) deal doesn't go through. FierceWireless' Roger Entner notes the Clearwire purchase will make Sprint America's largest spectrum holder, and wonders if the FCC (more concerned lately with AT&T/Verizon) will scrutinize the deal
Track new comments on this story

This news story has 4 comments:

  •  
    Why would the FCC care. ATT and V need some real competition and by the time Sprint gets around to using this spectrum (2 to 3 years) the FCC will probably be auctioning out more.
    18 Dec 2012, 01:09 PM Reply Like
  •  
    Because they want to assure competition and they are also concerned about foreign ownership of core US interests.
    18 Dec 2012, 02:24 PM Reply Like
  •  
    There will never be an issue with a Japan company investing in a US base business especially in the US wireless market. Its not like sprint can just pick up their network and move to Japan. The gap in market share between S and the top two is fairly large. Even with the spectrum advantage it will take 2 two 3 years before sprint can catch up. At that point ATT and V will have converted most of their 3G to LTE and the FCC will auction more spectrum. Both these companies have implemented data plans that add no value to most new/existing customers and at a higher cost. Verizon has even forced existing customers with unlimitied plans to upgrade to shared if they want to upgrade to an iphone 5. Needless to say if the sale of CLWR is not approved Sprint will not be able to expand their LTE network without handing over billions to them.
    18 Dec 2012, 03:09 PM Reply Like
  •  
    In this case Entner is just writing smoke to get peoples interest.
    1. Sprint has owned the largest stake in Clearwire for years.
    2. Clearwire is losing money and has been for years.
    3. Sprint is Clearwire's only significant customer.
    4. With Sprint owning Clearwire, NOTHING HAS CHANGED.
    5 T-Mobile has no money. AT&T is building it's LTE Network, Verizon already has the LARGEST network and it is Complete.
    6. So the FCC is going to tell Sprint it can't use the network it has been using for years, essentially putting Sprint out of Business and making Verizon a much larger number one, since both AT&T and T-Mobile are spending all the money on developing LTW, leaving Verizon the only one with money.
    Grow up Get Real
    19 Dec 2012, 01:06 AM Reply Like
LATEST|
TODAY SO FAR|
YESTERDAY
Other date
DJIA (DIA) S&P 500 (SPY)

TECH ETFs IN FOCUS

Latest Tech Articles
More Latest Articles »