Lightsquared's LTE network doomed

[legion125]

LS2 is bleeding $ with only enough funding for a few more quarters. Clearwire is on life support from Sprint who is leveraged up the ying/yang in dept to fund NV and pay for the iPhone. I don't think a partnetship is going to happen. Unless LS2 can do a spectrum swap soon they can then rekindle their agreement with Sprint and may have a chance. if not, LS2 will soon become a footnote in a business textbook.

[ericdabbs]

Sprint just needs to move on from Lightsquared and focus on Network Vision and Clearwire. Sprint needs to put strict tabs on Clearwire and cannot let them delay on their LTE deployment. Its going to be a long year to have just a single 5x5 LTE carrier on Sprint when it could really use the 2.5 Ghz LTE to offload customers when outside in dense urban cities.

[S4GRU]

Sprint just needs to move on from Lightsquared and focus on Network Vision and Clearwire. Sprint needs to put strict tabs on Clearwire and cannot let them delay on their LTE deployment. Its going to be a long year to have just a single 5x5 LTE carrier on Sprint when it could really use the 2.5 Ghz LTE to offload customers when outside in dense urban cities.

 

Yeah, with Clearwire having the first 5,000 sites date out there so far, I don't want to hear any excuses on delay.

 

Robert

[Josh]

LS2 needs to take the remaining funds it has and set up monitoring to see which industry devices bleed over into its spectrum and bill the offender for its use. LS2 could recoup a bunch of money that way. Silly, I know but its a waste to see a good idea and business plan go down the drain because of politicians, sloppy manufacturers and politicians.

 

What is terrible about this is that GPS systems are still not that accurate and have problems in cites, which is where they are needed most.

I think that the FCC should allow LS2 to swap their frequency at the next spectrum sale. There shouldn't have been a problem with the other frequencies, but if they can sell the spectrum to someone that will use it as intended for satellite transmission, they might still have a chance to become a viable company.

[pyroscott]

What is terrible about this is that GPS systems are still not that accurate and have problems in cites, which is where they are needed most.

I think that the FCC should allow LS2 to swap their frequency at the next spectrum sale. There shouldn't have been a problem with the other frequencies, but if they can sell the spectrum to someone that will use it as intended for satellite transmission, they might still have a chance to become a viable company.

 

I don't think that the FCC is interested in swapping spectrum. They are all for bringing internet to the people, but they aren't going to give up billions of dollars of spectrum to a company that tried to convert cheap spectrum into premium spectrum. No, it's not lightsquared's fault that GPS is spilling over into their spectrum, or that using their spectrum would cripple the GPS devices, but they bought satellite spectrum and tried to convert it to terrestrial spectrum. It was a good idea, but in the end it didn't work out.

[Robert]

So with lightsquare deader than a door nail what hope does Sprint have to launch a LTE network like they have been promising?

[Duffman]

So with lightsquare deader than a door nail what hope does Sprint have to launch a LTE network like they have been promising?

 

Can you elaborate? What does the LS deal have to do with Sprint's LTE?

[pyroscott]

So with lightsquare deader than a door nail what hope does Sprint have to launch a LTE network like they have been promising?

 

Maybe you should read some of the articles on this site about how Sprint is rolling out their LTE network. Lightsquared was a partner to Sprint, and Sprint was going to build out the lightsquared network alongside their own LTE network in exchange for lightsquared paying cash and allowing Sprint to use their network for extra data capacity. Now that Sprint has cut lightsquared loose, they are continuing on their own course and plan to use clearwire for extra capacity. It's a good thing Sprint "didn't put all their eggs in the same basket" but it would have been very foolish to count on lightsquared for their entire LTE network as lightsquared wasn't guaranteed that they would even be allowed to use their spectrum for terrestrial service which is what sunk them in the end.

[MacinJosh]

Maybe you should read some of the articles on this site about how Sprint is rolling out their LTE network. Lightsquared was a partner to Sprint, and Sprint was going to build out the lightsquared network alongside their own LTE network in exchange for lightsquared paying cash and allowing Sprint to use their network for extra data capacity. Now that Sprint has cut lightsquared loose, they are continuing on their own course and plan to use clearwire for extra capacity. It's a good thing Sprint "didn't put all their eggs in the same basket" but it would have been very foolish to count on lightsquared for their entire LTE network as lightsquared wasn't guaranteed that they would even be allowed to use their spectrum for terrestrial service which is what sunk them in the end.

 

Sprint put all their eggs in the WiMax basket and look what it got them in the end, rotten eggs. They learned from that mistake and they won't do that again. All partner companies will only be used for extra LTE capacity from this point forward. Sprint is making the smart move to build their own LTE network.

[S4GRU]

Unfortunately, the general reporting on the LightSquared/Sprint deal was flawed in expressing the true nature of the relationship. Also, many people jumped to conclusions that the deal with LightSquared was exactly the same as Clearwire, just with LTE.

 

As was noted above, Sprint was not using LightSquared for LTE. Sprint was hosting LS's LTE, not the other way around. With losing LS, Sprint is losing revenue, not LTE. Sprint is still deploying its own LTE network and that plan is completely unaffected by LightSquared's failures to get FCC approval.

 

It is true that Sprint did negotiate a deal to use LightSquared for additional LTE capacity when needed. However, Sprint said they would not likely use it before 2015. Sprint would only use LS when and where it was absolutely necessary, because it would have to pay per GB charges for it. And there wouldn't have been Sprint devices that supported LS frequencies for a long time.

 

As I always say, stay tuned to S4GRU.com for all the latest on Sprint's LTE deployment. It is going to be two years of non-stop announcements!

 

Robert

[Duffman]

 

Sprint put all their eggs in the WiMax basket and look what it got them in the end' date=' rotten eggs. They learned from that mistake and they won't do that again. All partner companies will only be used for extra LTE capacity from this point forward. Sprint is making the smart move to build their own LTE network.[/quote']

 

Well, that was the only basket at the time.

[pyroscott]

Sprint put all their eggs in the WiMax basket and look what it got them in the end, rotten eggs. They learned from that mistake and they won't do that again. All partner companies will only be used for extra LTE capacity from this point forward. Sprint is making the smart move to build their own LTE network.

 

I don't really blame them for using Clearwire and Wimax, LTE wasn't ready at the time, Clearwire was going to roll out a "nationwide" WiMax network, and the cost was relatively low in comparison to building the network themselves. Who knows, Sprint may have been planning on building their own LTE network the entire time... just using Clearwire to get the first 4G network and buy some time while Sprint saved money for their LTE network. Clearwire $#!# the bed on securing other wholesale customers and apparently was betting on their retail business to carry the network. Retail revenue wasn't what they expected, they had to slow their rollout and had to rely on Sprint like a crutch. Sprint could have let them go bankrupt, but losing 4G would have taken Sprint down too. So, it all comes down to, would you have rather seen Sprint stay 3G until now? Or be the first with a 4G network covering a good percentage of their customers?

[twospirits]

^ Totally agree.

[S4GRU]

And we must not forget they had mobile broadband build out requirements on the spectrum. It took them from 2008-2011 building out WiMax to meet FCC Minimum Coverage standards.

 

They likely couldn't have gotten rolling with LTE until Mid 2010 at the absolute earliest (and to be an early adopter like that would have been hugely problematic). There is no way in the world they could have met the FCC Minimum Coverage standard in less than 12 months from Mid 2010 to May 2011. WiMax was really their only choice in the short term.

 

Robert, Roberto, Admin, Hey You! Its all good! But this was posted from my E4GT with ICS using Forum Runner