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Investors Worry About Sprint LTE Migration Costs
Believe It Will Cost More, Take Longer Than Sprint Estimates
It's pretty much the worst-kept secret ever that sometime this summer Sprint will announce that they're making the transition from Mobile Wimax to LTE (running both simultaneously for some time). At the heart of that project sits a complete base station retrofit, which involves replacing current network hardware and base stations capable of utilizing multiple bands, including the company's 800 MHz, 1.9 GHz spectrum, 4G 2.5 GHz WiMax, and LTE. While Sprint has pegged this upgrade at around three to five years and $5 billion, Sprint stock has taken a recent hit on analyst concerns that the transition to LTE will be far more costly and time-intensive than Sprint is acknowledging:
quote:
"It appears as if Sprint Nextel is facing quite a complicated network-upgrade cycle, with many disparate partners, vendors, technologies and challenges," wrote Stifel Nicolaus analyst Christopher King last week. . .It could take longer than the three to five years that Sprint has projected, in part due to the legacy networks it operates as a result of its merger in 2005 with Nextel....."The main problem they have is that they have too many technologies," said Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. “Sprint would like to ride that LTE wave. Today, they are operating these three different networks. They have a path into the future of a single integrated network that will allow them to get on this main tech track, but to get there is a pretty complex engineering challenge."
Sprint is expected to announce the transition to LTE sometime this summer, as well as a network sharing arrangement with LightSquared -- assuming LightSquared can mitigate GPS interference hurdles.
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BF69 fan
@charter.com

BF69 fan

Anon

Hrm

I believe sprint at one point said to transition from Wimax to LTE would be pretty easy and would not cost all that much other then a bit of time.

IMDTexas
@scansafe.net

IMDTexas

Anon

Re: Hrm

Sprint and Clear have brought on companies who have a great history with networks to assist with their transition. It's not a matter of "if" but "when" they switch to LTE... The thing is LTE and WiMax have been confirmed to have graduated to their next stage (LTE Advance and WiMax2). The new HTC EVO 3D will run on 800mhz which wasn't planned to go live until later this year. Hurdles will pop up but Hesse has proven that he can and will overcome these hurdles...maybe slower than expected but still doing it. Lightsquared has confirmed talks with Sprint...that in itself is another story since Light has to prove they can exist with GPS. Maybe Sprint is getting their ducks in a row before announcing anything so not to have egg in their face. So many questions and not enough answers. Just a lot of speculation which reflects in Sprint's stock. Analyst like playing the Bull/Bear rolls when it best fits their portfolio...only time will tell.

BF69 fan
@charter.com

BF69 fan

Anon

Re: Hrm

If LTE wins which at this rate it looks like it will, why would any company go with WiMax2 over LTE Advance?
sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH

sonicmerlin

Member

Re: Hrm

said by BF69 fan :

If LTE wins which at this rate it looks like it will, why would any company go with WiMax2 over LTE Advance?

Time to market? WiMax 2 will be here very soon and can be done on Sprint's network with a simple software upgrade. LTEa is a few years out yet.

BF69 fan
@charter.com

BF69 fan

Anon

Re: Hrm

WiMax has had a fair head start. Yet it is likely to fail to LTE.

IMDTexas
@scansafe.net

IMDTexas to IMDTexas

Anon

to IMDTexas
»www.talkandroid.com/4306 ··· -sprint/

...And even though LTE has pretty much won the mobile battle for “4G,” Wimax isn’t done yet. In fact, Wimax-2 might be closer than you think...
IMDTexas

IMDTexas

Anon

Re: Hrm

but with that being said...lte is the choice (in my opinion) sprint will chose.
IMDTexas

IMDTexas to IMDTexas

Anon

to IMDTexas
lte is the choice (in my opinion) sprint will chose.

HaloFans
join:2006-12-18

HaloFans to BF69 fan

Member

to BF69 fan
Sprint has said it was along the lines of swapping out the currently installed wimax tower cards with LTE cards, and that would be it.

Sounds easy.

IMDTexas
@scansafe.net

IMDTexas

Anon

Re: Hrm

I'm sure they wish it were that easy. "We are just gonna change out the cards as you would with your SD Card in your phone"...if only.

iLive4Fusion
Premium Member
join:2006-07-13

iLive4Fusion to HaloFans

Premium Member

to HaloFans
Nothing is simple with Sprint. They can't even handle managing their own network, they had to turn over management over to Sony Ericsson.

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

3 edits

FFH5

Premium Member

Nextel merger - the gift that keeps on giving

The Sprint Nextel merger should be one that should be studied in MBA programs at major universities. It has been an unmitigated disaster for Sprint and has almost single handedly derailed Sprint's past and future plans and value as a company. Even now, as Sprint tries to turn around it's fortunes, it is still causing Sprint major headaches.

Makes one wonder what the costs and legal implications for Sprint would be if they just shut down completely the Nextel services tomorrow instead of 2013 thru 2017 and went forward without it. Whatever they are, it can't be worse than what they are continuing to deal with on keeping that service alive for some future transition.
openbox9
Premium Member
join:2004-01-26
71144

openbox9

Premium Member

Re: Nextel merger - the gift that keeps on giving

I agree. Sprint should've killed the Nextel services years ago. Running three disparate infrastructures is asinine and wasteful. While Sprint appears to moving in a good direction, it needs to cut the anchor to move...and it resists doing so.

BillRoland
Premium Member
join:2001-01-21
Ocala, FL

BillRoland

Premium Member

Re: Nextel merger - the gift that keeps on giving

As a legacy Nextel customer, the merger with Sprint was a disaster for us. Without beating dead horses, it was never something that was going to work, the two companies were polar opposites.

I would argue that Sprint primarily wanted the 1.9 and 2.5GHz spectrum holdings that Nextel had. I still believe Sprint will attempt to sell the iDEN network. I know they have talked big about deploying CDMA in ESMR, but I believe they will need the cash and they will need to get out from under iDEN as they try to go another direction. Time will tell, I guess.
rahvin112
join:2002-05-24
Sandy, UT

rahvin112

Member

Re: Nextel merger - the gift that keeps on giving

They can't sell IDEN, the FCC wants the band shutdown.

I don't want to go into the whole history but IDEN was constructed out of individually licensed radio bands used by private entities for such things as communicating with delivery drivers (the reason the push to talk system was so good). Nextel went through and bought out each license individually and constructed a cellular/radio network out of it but they've always been using the band differently than it was originally licensed. I don't know if it was a merger condition or the FCC eventually catching up to the system using the airwaves differently than licensed but the FCC wants IDEN shutdown and I'm almost positive that's one of the reasons Sprint is driving towards shutdown. A google search indicates the FCC is concerned about some cross-band interference that IDEN is causing in the 700MHZ band.
dudeman456
join:2005-04-29
New York, NY

dudeman456 to FFH5

Member

to FFH5
The only problem with them just shutting down the Nextel network would be losing the profit its making.
firedrakes
join:2009-01-29
Arcadia, FL

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Member

to FFH5
i agree ecom... i myself was wondering wth??? they did not go together
HIPAR
join:2005-11-10
Tannersville, PA

HIPAR

Member

To Complex?

These never ending sequences of wireless 'Wheeling & Dealing' are rapidly becoming much to technically, legally, financially, operationally and managerially complex. These companies risk falling apart under their own weight.

borrowedtime
@chsys.org

borrowedtime

Anon

Problems

The truth of the matter is that Sprint simply doesn't have the funds to continue. The Nextel merger has stopped Sprint's growth both on the subscriber side of things and on the network expansion side of things. Their coverage map makes me reminisce of wireless circa 1999. The bottom line is that this migration is going to take too long to complete and mentions nothing about addressing coverage issues that Sprint is notorious for. Meanwhile Verizon is deploying LTE like candy while AT&T and T-Mobile can push farther with their current HSPDA+ technology. Sprint needs to be purchased by either another wireless carrier that isn't currently in the U.S. market or possibly CenturyLink. The would be buyer would need to clean house at Sprint!
dudeman456
join:2005-04-29
New York, NY

dudeman456

Member

Re: Problems

Actually Sprint has had a positive subscriber growth, and the Nextel network started making a profit before the Sprint network.

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

michieru

Premium Member

.

iDEN still is strong, one can argue why, but it's a cheap way for companies to streamline radio equipment. I see them being used in hotels, in construction, and certain small businesses.

As a nextel customer a few years back, I can say the radio was a serious strong point. Most conversations are less than 5 minutes for me, so I would utilize the radio if I was contacting another nextel customer such as a family member. The rest of the time I would use my minutes to place calls, but because I would utilize the radio mostly, I was able to get a cheaper rate plan with just 450 minutes. Without the radio I quickly required a 800 minute plan which the closest for me was 1200 at the time.

iDEN was just a good network for it's time, now that we are more focused on speed and transferring audio/video through a 4in screen the priority of what a cellphone used to be has changed. It's now another toy/gadget and most people these days from what I see used it for anything other than calling.
dudeman456
join:2005-04-29
New York, NY

dudeman456

Member

Re: .

I wonder where Nextel would have been if they would have not been bought out, they were innovative.
Mark H
Premium Member
join:2008-05-18
Sterling Heights, MI

Mark H

Premium Member

4G in Metro Detroit

A year and a half ago they said it was coming soon. They are nothing but bald face liars. They knew it was not on the way, but simply choose to lie to their customers. While charging for 4G.

How anyone can take Sprint at their word is beyond me.

Jon Geb
Long time member
join:2001-01-09
Howell, MI

Jon Geb

Member

Re: 4G in Metro Detroit

The internet and several forums are littered with complaints about Metro Detroit and Sprint.

We are the largest area not covered and nobody knows whats going on. Sprint stores have no idea. Talked to a few employees and they said its starting to damage there business.
hottboiinnc4
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH

hottboiinnc4

Member

Re: 4G in Metro Detroit

resellers don't count as actual Sprint stores won't tell you its starting to damage business. They get paid no matter what. Resellers/dealers on the other hand don't get paid unless they can sign someone up and keep their contract running.

as far as if the network is there - visit: www.clear.com and do a coverage check; it will tell you if the network is built and waiting to be turned on. Much of NWO is set to be turned on this summer.
hottboiinnc4

hottboiinnc4

Member

Secret

is just a rumor! there is nothing otherwise said from Sprint. The only ones drumming up these are their sales agents and store dealers. Other sites are claiming what is "assumed" others are saying what is happening without knowing! Lets see some truth.

anonymiss
@comcast.net

anonymiss

Anon

dumb

The expensive part is getting a fast data connection to all the cell sites.

The base station retrofit will be cheap in comparison to putting fiber into 65,000 cell sites.