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Sprint Still Pretending Nobody Knows They're Moving to LTE
CEO Again Hints at Fall Announcement
We've effectively known since March that Sprint was moving to LTE, an insider giving us an exclusive scoop that the company's $4-$5 billion base station retrofit was the cornerstone of an LTE shift that involved tight spectrum sharing and network partnerships with LightSquared and Clearwire. That's since been confirmed by numerous leaks in an unlimited number of outlets, fairly obvious Clearwire comments and LightSquared investor notes. Still, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is playing coy, pretending that his company's migration to LTE isn't the worst-kept secret in telecom. The CEO almost giddily tells Engadget a hush-hush-super-secret announcement looms:
quote:
According to Hesse: "We're going to come out with a great story this fall around 4G, and it'll all become clear." He seemed curiously excited about whatever's around the bend, and Sprint's VP of Product Development, Fared Adib, seemed similarly giddy about the next few months. Neither of 'em would crack on what markets would be addressed or what tactics would be used to match rivals in terms of 4G reach, but whatever the case, we're guessing Sprint users will be a lot happier with their service once they get through the summertime blues.
Engadget either plays along with Hesse, or actually hasn't paid attention to the all the leaks, since they fail to specifically spell out that Hesse's hinting at an LTE migration. Technically, Sprint will overhaul their base stations to run Mobile WiMax and LTE simultaneously for several years as they make the shift. Investors are getting a little bored with the silence on the matter, since they'd like to know precisely what kind of financial hit Sprint will take during what could prove to be a very expensive and complicated transition.
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michieru
Premium Member
join:2009-07-25
Denver, CO

michieru

Premium Member

!

Might be the worst kept secret for us but for the general public who are the clueless sheep probably don't have a clue and if they do they hardly know anything about it.

Also Hesse sounds like he is doing some marketing, judging by what this "big announcement" might be is typical of Apple style advertisement.
Automate
join:2001-06-26
Atlanta, GA

Automate

Member

Makes sense to delay announcement

Considering their LTE plans are dependant upon LightSquared and LightSquared's business plan is questionable, I think they have good reason for delaying finalizing their plans and making an announcement.
hottboiinnc4
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH

hottboiinnc4

Member

Re: Makes sense to delay announcement

And why there is NO proof on an LTE network and nothing but an "insider" that's a typical sales agent that knows nothing. Anyone that works for a company can be an insider about something.

The only thing that some people do is keep a rumor going to inflate stock and this is what is happening but stock isn't even going up.

The announcement could be that Sprint is selling the company to a regional carrier or buying one out or even dropping contracts and moving flat rate. who knows. I know for one that Karl has NO real clue what the announcement is and is only spreading BS due to he won't back up his claims.

michieru
Premium Member
join:2009-07-25
Denver, CO

michieru

Premium Member

Re: Makes sense to delay announcement

The best guess to me is that people know Lightsquared and the problems they have with GPS and that's why even though they might try to inflate stock a investor won't take the bite because of the partnership they have.

Whatever Sprint does it will be to make the company strive like Verizon and AT&T, so it might not be any actual good news to the consumer and whatever is up Hesse's sleeve could make or break the company.

Grothendieck
Premium Member
join:2002-07-28
Miami, FL

Grothendieck

Premium Member

WiMax

I hope they still continue to expand the coverage of WiMax on currently lighted up cities.

As I have said on past news articles, 4G signal is very volatile. You can have full bars, enter a building and disconnect. Very annoying.

While I'm glad of the LTE for the long term, as i said above I wish they continue to expand WiMax because me and my wife have 4G phones which we will be stuck for 2 years and we don't want to be this 2 years with an abandoned technology.

n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY

n2jtx

Member

Re: WiMax

said by Grothendieck:

As I have said on past news articles, 4G signal is very volatile. You can have full bars, enter a building and disconnect. Very annoying.

Isn't that more a factor of frequency in use and not the technology. If you were running LTE on 700MHz, you would have better penetration of structures versus running 1900MHz. Anyone who has used 2G on 850MHz sees better fringe in-building coverage versus 1900MHz.

Grothendieck
Premium Member
join:2002-07-28
Miami, FL

Grothendieck

Premium Member

Re: WiMax

Yes I know.

I worded it wrong though, sorry. My statement was directed towards Sprint's implementation of 4G (WiMax), not towards 4G as a whole.

Also I believe WiMax uses 2500 MHz frequency, not 1900 MHz, which is even worse.

Duramax08
To The Moon
Premium Member
join:2008-08-03
San Antonio, TX

Duramax08

Premium Member

Uh

Can someone remind us why they are doing this switch from wimax to lte? Like pros, cons and comparisons. I know wimax can only go like 4 miles. Would lte go further?

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: Uh

said by Duramax08:

Can someone remind us why they are doing this switch from wimax to lte?

The main guess is that Wimax & LTE will ride side by side for quite a long time, with LTE not replacing Wimax.
hottboiinnc4
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH

hottboiinnc4

Member

Re: Uh

and that's if the LTE network is even built.

Cheese
Premium Member
join:2003-10-26
Naples, FL

Cheese to Duramax08

Premium Member

to Duramax08
said by Duramax08:

Can someone remind us why they are doing this switch from wimax to lte? Like pros, cons and comparisons. I know wimax can only go like 4 miles. Would lte go further?

»lmgtfy.com/

mix
join:2002-03-19
Romeo, MI

mix to Duramax08

Member

to Duramax08
erase me
mix

1 edit

mix to Duramax08

Member

to Duramax08
Would like to hear why as well. I get that the 2.5 Ghz spectrum won't penetrate buildings. By why the hell is the network so slow? Why is latency high? What are the reasons that make Wimax and the Clearwire/Sprint implementation of it suck so bad? Superficially, browsing over the comparison with LTE on say Wikipedia, it looks like it should be competitive.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon

Member

Re: Uh

said by mix:

Would like to hear why as well. I get that the 2.5 Ghz spectrum won't penetrate buildings. By why the hell is the network so slow? Why is latency high? What are the reasons that make Wimax and the Clearwire/Sprint implementation of it suck so bad? Superficially, browsing over the comparison with LTE on say Wikipedia, it looks like it should be competitive.

WiMAX does penetrate buildings at 2.5Ghz but not as well as lower bands. It works fine deep in my concrete/brick condo and middle of office. The towers have to be closer than lower bands of course but it indeed can penetrate even concrete.

As far as slowness, when first released I was getting 15Mbps indoors, others reported up to 25Mbps. As more users came online and home modem users where doing Netflix HD streaming, it got slower. I think they now throttle to 10Mbps, which is OK I guess because the only market it 'up to' 6Mbps.

As far as why these are happening, Clear simply doesn't have enough funding to supply enough backhaul or add enough sites. If Sprint is planning to upgrade virtually all sites to a combo network (LTE/WiMAX/CDMA), there should be improvements, but they need to supply enough backhaul as well, which is another challenge.

As a Sprint user, I just want over 4Mbps for my phone (for now) - I see up to 10Mbps at times. That's all I need and that's what I typically get. But there are some buildings where WiMAX signal is indeed lost and Clear/Sprint need to do more infill, getting WiMAX (and LTE) on virtually every Sprint site, which may happen with the announcement.

Sprint is also (apparently) adding the SMR band (at 800Mhz), which will help penetration.

mix
join:2002-03-19
Romeo, MI
GL.iNet GL-B1300
Netgear CM500

mix

Member

Re: Uh

I wondered if it was a backhaul issue. Doesn't LTE require a GigE backhaul from the base station? If Sprint doesn't have at least this much capacity at their sites now, won't they have to add this during their modular base station upgrades if they are going to offer LightSquared's and possibly their own LTE service?

Sprint is converting the SMR band used by Nextel to Wimax for sure? Not LTE?
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon

Member

Re: Uh

I'm thinking the SMR band will be used to expand Voice/3G but nothing specific has been announced.

SteelerRaw
@timet.com

SteelerRaw to mix

Anon

to mix
said by mix:

I wondered if it was a backhaul issue. Doesn't LTE require a GigE backhaul from the base station? If Sprint doesn't have at least this much capacity at their sites now, won't they have to add this during their modular base station upgrades if they are going to offer LightSquared's and possibly their own LTE service?

Part of their network vision overhaul includes moving away from T-1 for backhaul and towards microvave and fiber.

Sprint is converting the SMR band used by Nextel to Wimax for sure? Not LTE?

The converted SMR spectrum is initially going to be used for CDMA. I'm sure that LTE will be implemented on it eventually. Barring something unforeseen, WiMAX will never be on anything other than Sprint's (actually Clear's) 2.5GHz spectrum.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon to Duramax08

Member

to Duramax08
It's not wimax vs lte on distance, it's about the band (Mhz) used.

The downside to lower bands is interference. Right now LTE looks great at 700Mhz. When VZW starts to add LTE to more sites close together, there will be interference challenges that don't exist as much at 2.5Ghz.

The solution at 2.5Ghz is to have more sites. The solution for 700Mhz is to very carefully engineer capacity per site so that you don't have to add several sites in the same sector (avoiding interference).

COMMAN
Plug Me In
join:2000-07-17
Mount Juliet, TN

COMMAN

Member

Investors needn't worry

Now I'm no investment genius like Craig Moffett (snickers loudly) - heck, I don't even play one on TV, but I think the stockholders are in fine shape as regards this "very expensive and complicated transition". Yes, it's expensive up front, but will position Sprint well for the foreseeable future, and long-term savings will be had from the modularity and greatly reduced maintenance and power requirements of the new base stations. Let's also not forget Sprint has a tremendous depth of knowledge about transitioning networks, gained from the very painful integration with Nextel; hard lessons indeed, but lessons learned well. I think Sprint has been carefully and VERY intelligently positioning themselves to become a major player on equal footing with AT&T and Verizon within a few more years.

As a customer for many years now (started with Nextel in 1998) I have seen both their network and customer service improve greatly over the last 2-3 years, and I can't imagine I would ever move to another carrier. As Verizon and AT&T continue to bludgeon their customers for every nickel and dime they can beat out of them, I see a bright future for Sprint if they can maintain their current policies and continue to improve their service offerings.

Just my opinion, which I'm sure is worth LESS than 2 cents.

iLive4Fusion
Premium Member
join:2006-07-13

iLive4Fusion

Premium Member

Re: Investors needn't worry

said by COMMAN:

Now I'm no investment genius like Craig Moffett (snickers loudly) - heck, I don't even play one on TV, but I think the stockholders are in fine shape as regards this "very expensive and complicated transition". Yes, it's expensive up front, but will position Sprint well for the foreseeable future, and long-term savings will be had from the modularity and greatly reduced maintenance and power requirements of the new base stations. Let's also not forget Sprint has a tremendous depth of knowledge about transitioning networks, gained from the very painful integration with Nextel; hard lessons indeed, but lessons learned well. I think Sprint has been carefully and VERY intelligently positioning themselves to become a major player on equal footing with AT&T and Verizon within a few more years.

As a customer for many years now (started with Nextel in 1998) I have seen both their network and customer service improve greatly over the last 2-3 years, and I can't imagine I would ever move to another carrier. As Verizon and AT&T continue to bludgeon their customers for every nickel and dime they can beat out of them, I see a bright future for Sprint if they can maintain their current policies and continue to improve their service offerings.

Just my opinion, which I'm sure is worth LESS than 2 cents.

They should worry big time. Sprint only covers 70 markets with their aging 4G standard that even T-Mobile can beat now. While big V launches their 102nd market tomorrow in less than 6 months from when they started. Clear/Sprint have been deploying WhyMax for how long and still aren't getting far. T-Mobile covers 200 Million american's with HSPA+, and they didn't even have 3G until a year ago.
Rob2647
join:2008-08-12
Rochester, MI

Rob2647

Member

Its becoming a joke

Sprint is like a kid keeping a dumb secret. It's lame. And it better be worth the hype.
hottboiinnc4
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH

hottboiinnc4

Member

Re: Its becoming a joke

It's not Sprint that keeps bringing this up. It's sites that think they can keep their rankings high with Google. Any site that keeps reposting the same "story" on their blog is doing thing but hyping something that is NOT going to be worth it.