Wimax non-rollout question

[Feech]

I have a question and I hope this doesn't turn into flame bait but i really would like to see how people feel.

 

Back in 2010 when Wimax was rolling out, I was one of those people that was at Sprint buying a EVO, today though I was thinking that Sprint really screwed people when they never finished the roll out..again no flaming of Sprint but I was one of the lucky one that got Wimax in Tampa market but how did you guys feel that didn't get it? do you feel Sprint should have made it right somehow.. a free LTE device of thier choosing maybe?

 

Was Sprints intention to really have a nationwide rollout of Wimax? This is just a discussion and I would rather Robert not shut this thread down. I'm really curious what you guys were thinking. I'm thinking I would have been on fire though.

[Mondays In Flames]

In retrospect, I think it was a bad decision from Sprint. IMO you can't expect to have good performance from a network you don't really own and operate yourself.

 

 

-Luis

 

P.S. I never really got into Sprint when they had wimax, but just my opinion.

[SpenceSouth]

Hmmm I think I would have to say it was unfair to us as consumers. A lot of us bought the phone under the premise that at some point we would have 4G. For it to have never come at all, definitely had to have been a huge disappointment for all those Sprint customers. I think Sprint can just make it right just by completing their 4G network this time around. That would be good enough.

 

Like you though, Feech, I was lucky enough to have WiMax almost from the get go. I don't want to even think about all the customers that were suckered into upgrading their phones on the promise that 4G was coming soon to their area. Let's just hope Sprint takes WiMax as a lesson learned so we can all look forward to better things.

[Mondays In Flames]

Hmmm I think I would have to say it was unfair to us as consumers. A lot of us bought the phone under the premise that at some point we would have 4G. For it to have never come at all, definitely had to have been a huge disappointment for all those Sprint customers. I think Sprint can just make it right just by completing their 4G network this time around. That would be good enough.

 

Like you though, Feech, I was lucky enough to have WiMax almost from the get go. I don't want to even think about all the customers that were suckered into upgrading their phones on the promise that 4G was coming soon to their area. Let's just hope Sprint takes WiMax as a lesson learned so we can all look forward to better things.

 

Premise, not promise. Just like now they don't promise you will have LTE service any times soon, but by the end of 2013.

 

Ofcourse it's inconsiderate of the company, but Sprint isn't the first company to do such things.

 

-Luis

[Feech]

I really wonder, how many people bought that EVO based on a faster network they never saw..I honestly feel bad for anyone that did

[S4GRU]

OK. I live in a Non WiMax market. I bought the EVO on opening day...June 4, 2010. I asked the store when 4G WiMax would arrive in ABQ. They said before the end of summer. But I knew they were guessing.

 

I bought those EVOs anyway knowing that there was no WiMax in New Mexico and I was taking a risk. Everyone who bought an EVO before their market was deployed was taking a risk.

 

Sprint never said publicly they were taking WiMax nationwide or over its entire footprint. In fact, Sprint never planned to. They couldn't. 2500 spacing was way too tight and it was not economically feasible.

 

Sprint was trying to implement WiMax though in the top 120 cities in the country with Clearwire. That was the plan. But Clearwire spent too much money on its retail model, leaving them without enough capital to complete past the first 70 cities. Clearwire was banking that their retail business would bolster their cash flow and they would be able to keep moving. That logic was flawed.

 

Also by the time Clearwire ran out of money and their Protection Site deployment completed, Sprint was deep into Network Vision and LTE made more sense at that time. WiMax was dying.

 

Sprint didn't really make bad decisions, they just appear that way with the luxury of hindsight. If Sprint was in better financial shape to shore up Clearwire during the WiMax deployment and keep their 3G network robust, people would not really be complaining now. Sprint really did the best it could with the resources it had.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 using Forum Runner

[pyroscott]

I was more upset that I bought the HTC Hero just a few months before the EVO came out, than I was that 4G was never rolled out in my city. I wanted 4G, but it wasn't a big deal to me.

 

I really don't know why people still have so much heartburn about WiMax. The collapse of the legacy network, yes, that is heartburn worthy. There were plenty of people that were left with terrible connectivity over 3G that would have been satisfied with about 1Mbps over 3G instead of WiMax.

 

The fact of the matter is this, Clearwire built their business on, and were good at deploying, a network for stationary use. Their 3G Expedience network works well for what it is intended, wireless home internet in small markets with a lack of other internet options. Mobile devices, however, require closer site spacing, so they can handoff to the next site that the user is moving into before losing the connection from the first site. Clearwire must have either been ignorant to this fact, or they didn't care about Sprint's users' experiences and kept wide spacing to reduce their costs (rollout and maintenance costs). Like Robert said, maybe Clearwire was banking on the thought that they would have a lot of retail sales from their WiMax network. The problem with that, is that the 4G WiMax rollout was in large cities, with massive infrastructure able to deliver a variety of last mile connections that are much more efficient than WiMax. WiMax is really only a step up from satellite internet and antiquated or slow DSL/cable internet infrastructure.

 

Bottom line, WiMax was destined to fail, but that isn't the end of the line for Clearwire. They have a ton of spectrum and if they gradually expand their network, while providing capacity to Sprint (and hopefully other wireless operators) they should maintain sufficient cash on hand to support the network expansion. They can still use a retail model to expand into rural areas, selling home internet to areas only currently serviced by satellite, DSL or (gasp) dialup... In rural areas, they could command a premium for the kind of internet speeds that LTE can deliver, rather than virtually giving it away, like they do now.

[digiblur]

Bought my Epic with no hope of ever getting to use it on 4g. Just the market I am in. We were just happy to move to Android from the TP2.

 

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

 

 

[tommym65]

 

Bottom line, WiMax was destined to fail, but that isn't the end of the line for Clearwire. They have a ton of spectrum and if they gradually expand their network, while providing capacity to Sprint (and hopefully other wireless operators) they should maintain sufficient cash on hand to support the network expansion. They can still use a retail model to expand into rural areas, selling home internet to areas only currently serviced by satellite, DSL or (gasp) dialup... In rural areas, they could command a premium for the kind of internet speeds that LTE can deliver, rather than virtually giving it away, like they do now.

 

Interestingly, I just received a $34.95/month offer for unlimited 4G home internet service (Wimax) in the mail yesterday from Clear. I live in far NW suburban Chicago, and (although this is not relevant to Wimax) according to Sensorly, LTE has crept to within about 1 1/2 miles of my house from 2 directions. Clearly, Clear is still marketing (sorry, couldn't resist), and not just to underserved and rural areas, as my neighborhood has both Comcast and Uverse as well as strong coverage from AT&T Wireless, Verizon, T-Mo, and US Cellular. (Unfortunately, my house has aluminum siding, so I have to stand by an open, west-facing window to get Wimax on my aging EVO. If I got a Clear antenna and used their Internet package, I would actually get equal or better speeds than my current fiber-optic DSL, as I have proven by standing outside and running speed tests on my phone. My neighbors know that I'm crazy.)

[digiblur]

I wouldn't taint fiber's image with those nasty three letters of DSL.

 

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

 

 

[gangrene]

They probably should have known that building an entire data network on 2500-2600mhz was a bad idea in a country as spread out as the United States, but hindsight is 20/20.

 

They probably should have just started pushing EVDO Rev B out the door and enhancing backhaul to support itl the moment it became available back in 2007 or 2008.

[pyroscott]

Interestingly, I just received a $34.95/month offer for unlimited 4G home internet service (Wimax) in the mail yesterday from Clear. I live in far NW suburban Chicago, and (although this is not relevant to Wimax) according to Sensorly, LTE has crept to within about 1 1/2 miles of my house from 2 directions. Clearly, Clear is still marketing (sorry, couldn't resist), and not just to underserved and rural areas, as my neighborhood has both Comcast and Uverse as well as strong coverage from AT&T Wireless, Verizon, T-Mo, and US Cellular. (Unfortunately, my house has aluminum siding, so I have to stand by an open, west-facing window to get Wimax on my aging EVO. If I got a Clear antenna and used their Internet package, I would actually get equal or better speeds than my current fiber-optic DSL, as I have proven by standing outside and running speed tests on my phone. My neighbors know that I'm crazy.)

 

Exactly, they can't be making much off a $35/month unlimited home package, but they can't charge much more and expect anyone to get their service. They could charge 3 times that in rural areas that have no other option for anything over 2Mbps, but they don't have a dense customer base in rural areas.... Infrastructure is a lot cheaper to lay fiber to one hub and use wireless to deliver the "last mile" in rural areas instead of running fiber to every customer.