Eric M. Zeman, PhoneScoop, 2/3/2012

A company called Ting has this week launched its cellular phone service using Sprint’s CDMA and WiMax networks. Ting, which is operated by Tucows, provides inexpensive, no-contract access to mobile services. Potential customers will need to buy a Ting-branded phone from Ting, which range from the Samsung Reclaim for $45 to the Motorola Photon for $545. Phone prices are subsidized only slightly. Voice minutes, messages, and data can be each be ordered separately so that customers get the services they want at the cost they need. Voice plans range from “XS” at $0 per month for zero minutes to “XXL” at $52 per month for 3,000 minutes. Text messaging plans range from $0 to $14 and data plans range from $0 to $60 per month, depending on amounts. Users must pay $6 per handset per month at a bare minimum to keep the service active. The service includes voicemail, picture and video messaging, three-way calling, caller ID, tethering, hotspot at no extra cost. Ting is available anywhere Sprint services is provided.

more info at Ting »

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Stephen Lawson, ComputerWorld, 1/24/2012

Clearwire said WiMax data use by subscribers of Sprint and other partners grew at twice the rate of customer growth

Clearwire exceeded 10 million subscribers in the fourth quarter but still needs to raise more money to build its planned LTE network, a task that could be funded in part by an upcoming $300 million stock offering.

The U.S. WiMax operator, which powers Sprint Nextel’s 4G services, released selected preliminary fourth-quarter results on Tuesday before posting final results in the coming weeks. Wholesale and retail customers reached 10.4 million, most of those from wholesale partners, primarily Sprint.

While Clearwire estimated it had a net gain of 900,000 wholesale customers in the quarter, an 11 percent gain from the third quarter, it said aggregate WiMax network use by wholesale subscribers grew at twice that rate. Heavier data use on smartphones led the trend, with customers using 30 percent more data compared with the previous quarter. In the full year 2011, total data use by wholesale and retail customers grew 165 percent.

Sprint is the only major national carrier still offering unlimited monthly data use on smartphones, without throttling. But like other operators, Sprint continues to look for more capacity to meet continuing rapid growth in demand. It will continue to sell WiMax devices with two-year contracts at least until the end of this year and expects to use Clearwire’s WiMax network at least for the next few years. But both Sprint and Clearwire also plan to build LTE (Long-Term Evolution) networks to further expand their capacity and be able to tap into a large expected market for LTE phones, tablets and other devices.

During the fourth quarter, Clearwire and Sprint announced a long-awaited plan for coordination on LTE, in which Sprint invested more in its partner and said it had deals to buy capacity on Clearwire’s LTE network. Sprint also hopes to use LightSquared’s planned LTE network as part of a complex 15-year plan to host that network on its Network Vision infrastructure, but that partnership is on hold pending regulatory approval for LightSquared’s network. Sprint plans to offer LTE in the first half of this year.

For the fourth quarter, Clearwire estimated it achieved positive adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) for the first time, though including those factors, it expects to post net losses “for the foreseeable future.”

The company estimated it had $1.11 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of 2011, up from $711 million at the end of the third quarter. During the quarter, it raised $716 million through the sale of new shares. But the company said it still needs to raise more capital to build its LTE network, which it would operate alongside the WiMax system.

Clearwire also said Tuesday it is planning an offering of first-priority senior secured notes, to be offered by subsidiary Clearwire Communications, to raise $300 million. It did not give a date for the offering. That money could be invested in the future LTE network, company spokesman Mike DiGioia said.

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Electronista, 1/14/2012

Sprint to move phones wholesale to 4G and NFC

Sprint in commentary during CES confrimed that it was dropping WiMAX on smartphones. The initial LTE smartphones were ultimately representing a full-scale switch to the technology for 4G phones, PCMag was told. The carrier was being more aggressive than it had suggested before and, when promising LTE in mid-year, had meant between January and June, Owens explained.

Simultaneously, consumer product marketing VP Trevor Van Norman mentioned to Light Reading that the company planned for NFC (near-field communication) to be a standard feature in every smartphone. While there would be some edge case free or low-end phones tat wouldn’t have it, every other smartphone would get it from now onwards.

The planned switch may have given clues as to future iPhone releases. Sprint has committed to a multi-year deal with Apple to carry the iPhone and would have to either make a special exception for a 3G phone or else knows to expect LTE, NFC, or both. Both technologies have usually been left to Android, where Google takes a piece of Google Offers discounts.

Sprint regularly adopts basic technology first. It picked 4G well before other carriers were ready to deploy. Google helped it become the first to ship with a full NFC payment system in place through Google Wallet on the Nexus S 4G and now the Galaxy Nexus.

On Windows Phone, Owens said the HTC Arrive had sold poorly enough to reduce reasons to “jump back into the fire.” A return might come in August or September, although with who wasnt mentioned.

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Joseph Volpe, Engadget, 10/7/2011

We knew more or less that an announcement of this sort was coming. Back in July, Dan Hesse had teased us face-to-face with the promise of a “great story this fall around 4G,” and now the time to tell that tale has arrived. At its strategy event today, Sprint finally went public with plans to “simplify its network” by converting its 1900MHz holdings and LightSquared’s 1600MHz spectrum (“pending FCC approval”) to LTE, an industry favorite. Helping the operator make that transition is the swath of 800MHz spectrum it reclaimed from the, now defunct, iDEN push-to-talk network — which had been a drain on the company’s resources. This spectrum, acquired from Nextel, will be phased out by mid-2013 and rolled into LTE. The company plans for a rapid deployment of this new 4G network, with the first LTE markets and handsets to hit in mid-2012, and the full rollout mostly completed by 2013. Current subscribers signed up for WiMAX plans won’t have to worry as their devices will continue to be supported throughout 2012.

Beginning tomorrow, Sprint’s consolidating its 4G LTE (including LightSquared), 3G and Direct Connect networks into one single architecture. All the major technical milestones, such as test calls and field integration, have cleared their hurdles and work on over 22,000 cell sites are currently in process. Samsung, Alcatel Lucent and Ericsson have partnered with Sprint to install multimode 3G and 4G base stations to handle the network’s future traffic, essential for deploying the multitude of frequencies required by hosted devices. Prospective iPhone 4S users on the network will be able to take advantage of better signal strength and improved voice service as Sprint intends to also offload the latter onto 800MHz.

Expect a steep “reduction in roaming costs” and deeper signal penetration throughout the operator’s expanding national footprint over the course of the next two years. Naturally, LTE speeds on this new network will be significantly improved over the currently in-use WiMAX, and a planned implementation of WiFi offloading should help to cut congestion by 20 percent. By the end of next year, Sprint aims to have a combined WiMAX/LTE population coverage of 176 million — with 123 million covered by LTE and 76 million overlapping both. When the network build-out is nearly complete in 2013, the company should have over 250 million blanketed in LTE, far outstripping the stagnant 120 million served by WiMAX.

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Wi-Fi hotspots will continue to grow in terms of locations, the total number of connections and their importance to network operators who face growing data demand. In its latest report, In-Stat research provides some numbers to give some sense of scale for the hotspot trend, estimating that in 2015, wireless hotspots will account for nearly 120 billion connect sessions. Helping to grow the connection number will be improved, automatic log-ins and more hotspots to tap in to.

Around the globe, In-Stat expects one million hotspot locations available by 2013, and based on the number of publicly available new Wi-Fi networks I’m seeing in my rural backyard, I’m not surprised. Businesses of every size are turning to Wi-Fi not only as a convenience for customers but also as a way to expand foot traffic, advertising opportunities and engagement. Traditional brick-and-mortar stores don’t have the most people on their networks, however. That distinction belongs to transportation hubs and convention centers, where the large crowds account for 30 percent of all Wi-Fi hotspot connects.

Laptop computers are still the No. 1 device for Wi-Fi hotspot use, which makes sense as Wi-Fi radios are standard fare for notebooks. Smartphones and tablets are catching up, however, even though many have integrated 3G or 4G radios. Device owners are apt to take advantage of free or low-cost hotspots to reduce the risk of mobile broadband data overages as carriers migrate away from unlimited data plans. The Wi-Fi connections are often faster and can use less power, which can save battery life on these mobile devices.

Network operators see the benefits of Wi-Fi offload and are likely to aid in the expansion of hotspot locations by partnering with businesses directly or through existing hotspot networks, such as Boingo Wireless. In July, for example, Japanese network operator KDDI said it would build out 100,000 Wi-Fi hotspots by March 2012 that will seamlessly work with the carrier’s WiMAX network. A seamless network transition, in addition to automatic log-in software — similar to Boingo’s current application — essentially turns Wi-Fi into the “other” cell network in this case.

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Sue Marek, FierceWireless, 8/11/2011

The third time is not always a charm–at least not when it comes to the cable industry succeeding at selling wireless services. By my count, the cable industry has made at least three attempts over the past two decades to gain a foothold in the wireless industry and build the elusive quad-play offering of cable, wireless, landline and Internet. So far these attempts (including its latest venture reselling Clearwire’s WiMAX service) have met with little success.

Some may think I’m premature to declare Comcast and Time Warner Cable’s participation in Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) a failure (these two companies along with Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S), Google, Intel, Trilogy Equity Partners and Bright House Networks invested $3.2 billion in Clearwire in 2008). But during the company’s recent second quarter earnings call with investors, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt noted that customer response to the WiMAX service has so far been lackluster. He even hinted that there might not be much of a market for the quadruple-play that the cable providers have been working so hard to provide to customers. Britt also said that while Time Warner Cable isn’t ready to give up on wireless, it probably won’t invest any more money in Clearwire.

Meanwhile, Comcast lost its most vocal supporter of wireless when Dave Williams, formerly the senior vice president of wireless at Comcast, left to join the wireless infrastructure firm Stoke. In an interview with FierceBroadbandWireless, Williams wouldn’t comment on Comcast’s view of the wireless industry, but he did hint that the cable industry is becoming very interested in Wi-Fi.

In addition, Roger Enter of Recon Analysis recently noted in a FierceWireless column that in the second quarter Clearwire announced 1.5 million wholesale net adds while at the same time Sprint Nextel announced it added 1.7 million 4G WiMAX customers. Entner said the  discrepancy indicates that Clearwire’s cable partners have lost 200,000 WiMAX subscribers.

With all these attempts but no clear success, I wonder if the cable industry can succeed at wireless. Jim Barthold, senior analyst with NPD’s Connected Intelligence Group, thinks that the cable companies are intent on offering wireless service but just haven’t given it much of a priority–at least not yet. “I think they have other things they are working on and they are not getting pushed to do wireless,” Barthold said. “When it does become a priority, they will move fast.”

Barthold added that Clearwire’s Aug. 3 announcement that it will deploy LTE-Advanced in addition to its existing WiMAX network may be an indicator that the firm’s cable partners are looking for a more widespread 4G offering.

Cable industry executives have repeatedly said that cable must have a wireless offering if it wants to remain competitive with the telcos. In fact, at the National Cable Show earlier this summer, several cable executives were quoted as saying that wireless must be part of their offering.

Perhaps the answer to cable’s wireless dilemma lies in the vast amount of spectrum some have accumulated. Time Warner Cable and Comcast are both investors in SpectrumCo, which purchased $2.4 billion worth of AWS spectrum licenses during the FCC’s 2006 spectrum auction. Although neither has made an attempt to actually use that spectrum, it certainly could be their next step should they decide to give up on the wholesale game.

Let’s revisit cable’s various wireless attempts:

1994: Sprint, Tele-Communications Inc., Comcast Corp and Cox Cable formed a joint venture in which the companies planned to build a nationwide network to provide wireless, local and long distance phone service and cable TV to consumers. The companies won PCS licenses and built a network. However, in 1998 Sprint assumed control of the business and bought the cable companies’ interest in the company.

2005: Comcast, Cox, Time Warner and Advance/Newhouse formed a joint venture with Sprint Nextel to provide a quad-play cable TV, high-speed data, landline and wireless service to their customers. But the quad-play idea never panned out and Pivot never grew beyond the initial 33 markets Sprint launched in November 2007. Sprint said that Pivot was being hindered by provisioning issues. Time Warner later said that demand for Pivot services was “tepid.” Pivot users eventually were given the option of switching to Sprint’s regular service.

2008: Sprint and Clearwire announced that they would combine their WiMAX businesses and create a new company that would include a $3.2 billion investment from Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Trilogy Equity Partners.  The new company was named Clearwire and Comcast, Time Warner, and Sprint decided to operate as MVNOs selling Clearwire’s WiMAX service. Clearwire announced Aug. 3 that it will deploy TDD-LTE equipment in addition to its WiMAX network but the company admitted it needs $600 million more in capital to do that.

This timeline clearly shows that cable companies have continually underestimated the challenges of delivering wireless services. Recon’s Entner says that that cable companies are experts in bundling different products into packages. They know they need a wireless solution in their portfolio, but have not yet figured out how to do it. If there is a lesson to learn from cable’s tangled history in wireless, it’s that wireless is a complicated business–one that requires commitment and focus. After three attempts and lackluster response, let’s hope that the cable industry is able to learn from its past and make some smart decisions about wireless in the future.

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Clearwire, 8/3/2011

KIRKLAND, Wash, Aug. 3, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Clearwire Corporation (Nasdaq:CLWR), a leading provider of 4G wireless broadband services in the United States, today announced its intent to add “LTE Advanced-ready” technology to its 4G network. The announcement follows the successful completion of 4G technology trials that achieved download speeds exceeding 120 Mbps and demonstrated the potential of Clearwire‘s unmatched spectrum advantage.

The initial implementation of Clearwire‘s LTE network would target densely populated, urban areas of Clearwire‘s existing 4G markets where current 4G usage demands are high. The robust all-IP infrastructure already deployed in these markets can be leveraged to serve the company’s LTE needs, delivering significant capital cost savings compared to a similar overlay by other carriers of an existing 3G architecture.

“Clearwire plans to raise the bar again for mobile broadband service in the United States,” said John Stanton, Clearwire‘s Chairman and interim CEO. “Our leadership in launching 4G services forced a major change in the competitive mobile data landscape. Now, we plan to bring our considerable spectrum portfolio to bear to deliver an LTE network capable of meeting the future demands of the market.”

“This is the future of mobile broadband,” said Dr. John Saw, Clearwire‘s Chief Technology Officer. “Our extensive trial has clearly shown that our ‘LTE Advanced-ready’ network design, which leverages our deep spectrum with wide channels, can achieve far greater speeds and capacity than any other network that exists today. Clearwire is the only carrier with the unencumbered spectrum portfolio required to achieve this level of speed and capacity in the United States.”

“In addition, the 2.5 GHz spectrum band in which we operate is widely allocated worldwide for 4G deployments, enabling a potentially robust, cost effective and global ecosystem that could serve billions of devices,” Saw added. “We anticipate that the economies of scale derived from this global ecosystem will act as a catalyst for the development of thousands of low-cost devices and applications. And, since we currently support millions of customers in the 2.5 GHz band, we know that our LTE network won’t present harmful interference issues with GPS or other sensitive spectrum bands.”

Clearwire also noted that since launching its first 4G market in 2009, video has become the largest component of the company’s overall data traffic and video traffic itself has increased more than tenfold since 2009. The company believes that as more video-intensive smartphones and services rise, so will the needs for Clearwire‘s high-capacity 4G wholesale network.

LTE Advanced is a 4G technical standard that calls for peak download mobile speeds of at least 100 Mbps, which far exceeds today’s commercial networks. Clearwire‘s LTE network will be “LTE Advanced-ready” meaning that it will use an ultra-high-capacity spectrum configuration that is superior to the typical configuration of the slower, more capacity-constrained commercial LTE network designs in the United States of today.

Clearwire‘s LTE implementation plan, which is subject to additional funding, contemplates deploying Time Division Duplex (TDD) LTE technology and reusing its flexible all-IP network architecture and upgrading base station radios and some core network elements, which offers significant capital savings. This will include the use of multicarrier, or multichannel, wideband radios that will be carrier aggregation capable. Carrier aggregation is a key feature of LTE Advanced that will enable Clearwire to further leverage its vast spectrum depth to create larger “fat pipes” for deploying mobile broadband service. The network would position Clearwire as the clear leader in 4G mobile broadband technology, capable of serving the current and anticipated future demands of wholesale and retail customers.

Clearwire, together with some of the largest wireless carriers in the world, is a founding member of the Global TDD LTE Initiative (GTI) which aims to bring together leading industry partners to steer the TDD LTE ecosystem as a major standard in mobile broadband technology and drive the development of next generation mobile broadband networks. Member companies that currently support more than a billion subscribers on their networks believe that a global LTE standard has the potential to achieve significant economies of scale and serve hundreds of millions of customers worldwide.

Clearwire also restated its commitment to its existing 4G WiMAX network, which covers approximately 132 million people while serving 7.65 million retail and wholesale customers and an ecosystem of nearly 110 WiMAX enabled devices, including all 4G phones currently offered by Sprint. Clearwire expects to end 2011 with approximately 10 million 4G customers.

About Clearwire

Clearwire Corporation (Nasdaq:CLWR), through its operating subsidiaries, is a leading provider of mobile broadband services. Clearwire‘s 4G network currently provides coverage in areas of the U.S. where more than 130 million people live. Clearwire‘s open all-IP network, combined with significant spectrum holdings, provides an unprecedented combination of speed and mobility to deliver next generation broadband access. The company markets its 4G service through its own brand called CLEAR^® as well as through its wholesale relationships with companies such as Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Locus Telecommunications, Cbeyond, Mitel and Best Buy. Strategic investors include Intel Capital, Comcast, Sprint, Google, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks. Clearwire is headquartered in Kirkland, Wash. Additional information is available at http://www.clearwire.com.

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Roger Cheng, CNET News, 7/12/2011

AT&T is jumping into the actual 4G game with its first two LTE products.

The Elevate 4G mobile hot-spot devices is one of the first products that will use AT&T’s upcoming 4G LTE network. (Credit: AT&T)

The telecommunications giant plans to show off a laptop card called the USBConnect Momentum 4G and a mobile hot-spot device called the Elevate 4G–the first two devices that are compatible with its upcoming next-generation wireless network. The two products will be on display at an annual company showcase later today.

The two devices shouldn’t be confused with AT&T phones and products that currently carry the 4G tag. The two new products will be compatible with a flavor of 4G called Long-Term Evolution, which also powers the network that Verizon Wireless has been tirelessly touting in recent months.

AT&T has previously said that LTE theoretically is more than three times faster than its current “4G network” and 10 times faster than 3G. The company hasn’t disclosed actual comparisons.

AT&T, which plans to launch its 4G LTE network this summer in five cities and in 15 cities by year’s end, is racing to catch up to Verizon and Sprint Nextel in the 4G game. In January, AT&T followed T-Mobile USA’s footsteps and rebranded an upgraded variant of its 3G network, called HSPA+, with the 4G title, allowing it to continue boasting of the country’s fastest nationwide network.

The USBConnect Momentum 4G, the first laptop card compatible with AT&T’s upcoming 4G LTE network. (Credit: AT&T)

But AT&T is far behind Verizon when it comes to the deployment of 4G LTE. Verizon’s LTE network is in 77 metropolitan areas now, with plans to cover 175 markets by the end of the year. Sprint, meanwhile, is in 71 markets with its WiMax variant of 4G, although its expansion has stalled because of financing problems with partner and network operator Clearwire.

AT&T argues that the HSPA+ variant of 4G, which is available in 80 percent of the country, allows for a more smooth transition when moving between networks.

“Our customers will have the benefit of access to both our LTE network and our HSPA+ network,” Jeff Bradley, senior vice president of devices for AT&T, said in an e-mail. “This will provide a much more compelling and consistent speed experience as customers travel across our network.”

The company also argues that in some cases, its version of 4G is just as fast as Sprint’s WiMax. However, AT&T has moved up the timetable for its 4G LTE deployment, underscoring the importance of keeping pace with the competition. When launching a new network, laptop cards are typically the first product out of the gate. More recently, mobile hot-spot devices, which use the cellular network to generate a small but portable Wi-Fi hot spot for other devices, have become an increasingly popular way to introduce a new network.

For AT&T, the Momentum and Elevate are a good start. The Momentum laptop card will sell for $49.99 with a two-year contract. The device has a slot for a MicroSD card that can hold up to 32GB of data. It weighs 1.06 ounces.

The Elevate hot-spot device will cost $69.99 with a two-year contract. It has a color 1.77-inch LCD display that shows the Wi-Fi network name and security key. It weighs 3.6 ounces and can be used for up to five hours and connect up to five devices. Like the Momentum, it has a slot to allow for a 32GB memory card.

Dallas-based AT&T declined to comment on when the products will be available, adding only that they will sell with the launch of the 4G LTE network, which hasn’t been specified yet. The company is also still working on the data plan prices for the devices.

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Phil Goldstein, FierceWireless, 5/20/2011

Clearwire COO Erik Prusch said the company will eventually switch to LTE network technology, but declined to say when the switch will happen–and warned the plans are not definite.

“WiMAX to date has been a very good technology choice for us,” he said in an interview with Cnet “We were able to take advantage of the speed to market before LTE was even a glimmer in anyone’s eye. But we recognize the ecosystem in the U.S. will be larger for LTE than WiMAX, so we are conscious of that.”

Clearwire has said any further announcement about the LTE trials it has been conducting will be made in conjunction with Clearwire’s wholesale customers. Prusch said LTE technology and the ecosystem need to mature before Clearwire adopts LTE.

Clearwire’s eventual move to LTE could include a partnership with Sprint Nextel. Speculation has centered on the possibility that Sprint will launch LTE service via the new, multi-mode base stations it is deploying as part of its Network Vision project, and that Clearwire will enter into a network-sharing deal with Sprint. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said Network Vision will make it possible for the company to inexpensively host other carriers’ traffic on its network–including Clearwire’s. “It also has been reported that there are some discussions between Clearwire and Sprint about the potential of Sprint hosting some spectrum,” Hesse said this week at an investor conference. “That’s a potential that could happen. It’s more economical for Clearwire to host it vs. building a separate network.” Sprint executives have said the carrier will provide additional details on its possible move to LTE sometime later this year.

In his interview with Cnet, Clearwire’s Prusch also said he is confident the company can reach profitability, despite funding challenges and growing competition from carriers deploying LTE.

Prusch, who was formerly Clearwire’s CFO, said the company’s strategy for this year and beyond remains in flux, but that the company is looking for more funding and revenue from subscribers to fund its network buildout. Clearwire currently covers around 130 million POPs and counts around 6 million subscribers.

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Zach Epstein, BGR, 4/1/2011

Sprint is no longer the “4G king,” BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk proclaimed on Friday following a massive speed test that pitted Sprint’s HTC EVO 4G against Verizon Wireless’ HTC ThunderBolt. Piecyk and his team conducted more than 1,000 speed tests in New York City to determine which was faster: the ThunderBolt, running on Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network, or the EVO 4G, running on Sprint’s 4G WiMAX network. The analyst found that Verizon’s offering was consistently and significantly faster than Sprint’s 4G phone. The speed tests were conducted using the integrated mobile hotspot functions on both devices, and the testers were equipped with both an Apple iPad 2 and a Toshiba laptop for the tests. In the tests, Verizon’s LTE network averaged speeds of 9Mbps down and 5Mbps up while Sprint’s WiMAX network averaged about 1Mbps both down and up. Verizon’s LTE speeds peaked at 19Mbps down and 10Mbps up during the tests. Piecyk also found that Verizon Wireless’ LTE network was more reliable than Sprint’s WiMAX offering, and it offers better coverage. Adding insult to injury, he says the ThunderBolt has better battery life than the EVO 4G as well. Hit the break for a chart mapping out BTIG’s findings.

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