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Sprint makes official offer to acquire Clearwire


marioc21

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Maybe, though I cannot say with any certainty. What I can say is that it does not make sense to deploy TD-LTE 2600 in cells where nearly all users are highly transient (e.g. highway coverage). Users would enter and exit TD-LTE 2600 coverage zones too quickly for the users or the network to benefit.

 

AJ

At my work, 2g and 3h signals are brutal. There's not lte in my area yet, but Sprint or should I say, Clear wire, has a tower right outside of my work building. Hopefully, they can upgrade that tower to lte advanced, since I don't see lte 1900 reaching that far. It's not near the highway, either. :D

 

 

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

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All this talk about 20 MHz carriers etc... Unless your doing something outside the terms of service (ie heavy file sharing, tethering, etc) really what's the point of having that fast of a connection for a smart phone? Give everyone 6-8 MHz 99% of the time and your golden IMHO.

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All this talk about 20 MHz carriers etc... Unless your doing something outside the terms of service (ie heavy file sharing, tethering, etc) really what's the point of having that fast of a connection for a smart phone? Give everyone 6-8 MHz 99% of the time and your golden IMHO.

 

Exactly, it will just invite abuse. (and millions of speed tests)

 

 

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All this talk about 20 MHz carriers etc... Unless your doing something outside the terms of service (ie heavy file sharing, tethering, etc) really what's the point of having that fast of a connection for a smart phone? Give everyone 6-8 MHz 99% of the time and your golden IMHO.

 

Because 20 MHz in QPSK at a 1/2 code rate is still fast.

 

Sent from my Droid DNA

 

 

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I want to do millions of speedtests, lol. It's so much fun to sit there and watch the guage. So mesmerizing. :P:rofl:

 

Josh might be autistic:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seVRWfA5Hgc

 

AJ

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As a sprint enthusiast , my first action is "greedy clear investors bla bla bla"...... But I can also appreciate the frustration that some of them must have with their investment. Clearwire and sprint convinced them to invest their money in a network endeavor that should have had limitless potential. Yet under majority ownership of sprint, much of their investment has eroded and they are now being asked to cash out and be done. Whether its correct to do so, it's easy to point a finger at sprint. Could sprint offer to swap stock with some of the investors and allow them to see if their investment is capitalized through sprint growth?

 

It should also cause a bit of reckoning amongst them... Sprint invited clear to be a part of network vision and clear refused. Had they agreed to cooperate In the beginning, there's a chance their stock price wouldn't be as depressed as it is...they could already be selling/reselling LTE In a few places and there would be more optimism around their wholesale access sale ability in the future. As it stands, they are waging to show up " last of the pack" or with the tail end of the pack in most markets.

 

Clear is a big unfortunate lost opportunity.

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Tim Farrar, in his blog, always has very interesting analysis of this offer. Basically what he thinks is that Sprint is not really interested in Clearwire's spectrum. It's doing it to block a rival offer from Dish. He opines that Sprint is much more interested in PCS H and any PCS spectrum that a potential acquisition of Dish's spectrum by AT&T might force them to divest.

 

For more details:

 

http://tmfassociates.com/blog/2012/12/13/its-complicated/

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Tim Farrar, in his blog, always has very interesting analysis of this offer. Basically what he thinks is that Sprint is not really interested in Clearwire's spectrum. It's doing it to block a rival offer from Dish. He opines that Sprint is much more interested in PCS H and any PCS spectrum that a potential acquisition of Dish's spectrum by AT&T might force them to divest.

 

For more details:

 

http://tmfassociates.com/blog/2012/12/13/its-complicated/

 

I think this is a factor, but SoftBank has already shown it is definitely interested in Clearwire.

 

Robert via Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

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Softbank caps Sprint's Clearwire bid; investors want more

 

http://uk.reuters.co...E8BD03920121214

 

Softbank is preventing Sprint from bidding more than $2.97 per share.

 

I don't see any urgency for Sprint to pick up Clearwire. Clearwire is burning through cash so quickly it doesn't have enough to last all the way through 2013. At that point Clearwire's stockholders will be forced to choose between declaring bankruptcy and walk away with next to nothing or taking what it can get from Sprint. I don't see any other suitors coming.

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Yes Sprint should wait as long as it can to buy out Clearwire. There is no need at all to rush a buyout of Clearwire since there are higher priority deals that Sprint needs to make such as bidding on the PCS H block, a spectrum sharing deal with Dish, asking for Tmobile/MetroPCS PCS divestitures, etc. Clearwire shouldn't think about picking up Clearwire until 2014 when Network Vision is complete.

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4dx...focus on doing one or two things well and you will stand the greatest chance of accomplishing those tasks successfully or focus on more than that and stand little chance of being successful with any of them.

 

Sprint's track record is the later. NV is the only focused task to date that we can say looks to be going well. "to date" being the key words. I have my doubts with Sprint staying focused with all these new distractions popping up.

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Spectrum or no spectrum, Clearwire alone has a much shakier footing absent Sprint than investors seem t give them credit for. They're losing money hand over fist over pot over teakettle, their network is slower than T-Mobile's DC-HSPA network, let alone anyone's LTE (and this is in a desktop context; take speeds and halve them in the mobile context, a problem that no other carrier has because Clearwire is being cheap CPE gear), and they can't extract premium, or maybe even reasonable, wholesale rates because their network isn't built out like it should be.

 

Don't get me wrong. If you're in an area served by Clearwire, $90 for a modem plus $10 per month for 10GB of data is a very decent deal. $90 for the modem plus $0 for 1GB of data is also decent. However if you're selling gigabytes so cheaply to FreedomPop that they can offer those rates and break even, are you even paying your own infrastructure costs, even mixing in Sprint's network lease payment? I mean, you do have a spotty, stagnant network footprint but geez...

 

For investors thinking that Clearwire will be able to sell its spectrum for a pretty penny, look at the potential buyers. In order to get AT&T or Verizon interested, Sprint would have to drop its share of CLWR completely, which first off isn't happening and second off would tank the share price since there would be 100% increase in the number of shares in the open market...and the Sprint contract keeping some of the lights on would be gone. Dish or DirecTV? Sure, but they don't have anywhere near as deep pockets as AT&T/VZW, so you won't get nearly as many cents per MHz-pop, even though there's already a 3GPP certification for Clear's LTE band and hardware will be available for it years sooner than for WCS.

 

Why won't you be able to get as many dollars per MHz-pop in a Dish situation? Well, you see, Dish isn't a mobile provider, and even if it became one they wouldn't be able to use Clearwire spectrum to do a traditional mobile network because cell sizes are too small. You have to do fixed wireless because Dish's customer base has a large rural proportion, and Dish's current customer base is what they'll leverage for a new wireless product. And what do you sell to rural customers seeking fixed wireless broadband? Well, something that gets billed by household rather than by person, something that has a lower cost per gigabyte than mobile, and something that will get discounted as part of a double/triple play. So look for an average revenue per household of $50 per month, rather than an average revenue per person of $70. You may not have to subsidize fancy phones, but you do have to pay for labor to install the user CPEs, and pay for the CPEs themselves...and do this while staying under the pricing of VZW HomeFusion, ViaSat exede and HughesNet.

 

With all of those caveats, why do CLWR investors think that their company is hot stuff, again?

 

To be fair, the investors in CLWR might be using AT&T phones and wouldn't ever have to live with HughesNet, ViaSat or some potential alternative. Or maybe they're shorting AT&T, hoping that that company will depress its stock price like Sprint has done by going after Clearwire. Who knows?

 

Okay, I'm just being grumpy now. In the interest of full disclosure, I have immediate family that has a fair amount of Sprint stock. So I'm shaking my head at Sprint, muttering "too soon..."

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Well any of this won't go through till after sprint Softbank is finalized as it uses that money for the deal...

 

Then I worry how this will effect the spectrum auctions sprint has already stated they are interested in coming up...

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

 

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The FCC will not flat out bar Sprint from bidding on H Block. But they may require them to divest some EBS/BRS spectrum. And divesting EBS spectrum is easy. You just terminate the lease with these schools and pay the fee. They don't have to sell it. Let the schools figure it out.

 

On another note, SoftBank's cap of $2.97 is a smart move. Clearwire right now is at its maximum value. Over the next few quarters, it will likely decline. Because without Sprint, Clearwire is hemorrhaging money and will run out of cash next year. As the dire circumstances of Clearwire's financial position becomes clearer in 2013, the stock will start dropping. All of Clearwire's value is because of Sprint.

 

Just because Mount Kellet et all believe they can squeeze out $4 or $5, doesn't mean that its worth that. How much would Clearwire go for on the open market with all its debt? Nothing. Clearwire's only value is in spectrum, which no one wanted the last time they tried to sell it. And Clearwire's spectrum is probably worth less than its debt when any reasonable value is assigned to it. Sprint's deal is the only thing on the horizon that will make shareholders money.

 

Guaranteed $3 today, or the promise of $4 next year after a bad string of monthly financials, loss of WiMax customers, and cash burn? The fundamentals for long term Clearwire investing maintaining the status quo are not there. And even Mount Kellet has to know that. I'll take my $2.97, please.

 

Robert via Nexus 7 on Tapatalk

 

 

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Well any of this won't go through till after sprint Softbank is finalized as it uses that money for the deal...

 

Then I worry how this will effect the spectrum auctions sprint has already stated they are interested in coming up...

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

Exactly what I have been saying. Until the Sprint/Softbank and the US Cellular transactions are finalized next year, Sprint needs to not focus on Clearwire. Sprint needs to stay under the spectrum screen so that they can bid on the PCS H block and possibly work out a deal with Dish Network for the 40 MHz of 2 GHz spectrum. Sprint desperately needs the H block spectrum to expand their 5x5 G block carrier to a 10x10 G+H block carrier.

 

Clearwire should be the very last deal that Sprint makes (hopefully in 2014) since they already have a controlling interest in the company. Sprint will no doubt have Softbank's blessing since by then the Sprint/Softbank transaction will be finalized. No other company at the moment is interested in Clearwire other than Sprint so the bargaining chip is already in Sprint's favor. Clearwire investors are just playing hardball because they want more and I hope it stays that way. Hopefully this is enough to delay any purchase of Clearwire for the time being. Obtaining more PCS spectrum should be Sprint's number 1 priority especially in many areas of the US where they only have 20 MHz of PCS spectrum in that market. The US Cellular deal is a first step to address Chicago and some other cities but getting PCS divestitures from the MetroPCS/Tmobile deal would be another step.

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They will still need clearwire in the end of things. Won't need them big for awhile but at somepoint they will need them as hotspots as they won't ever catch up spectrum wise to the big dogs and with the goal of adding users they will need more...I'd think more than what is able to be bought at auction I think...but AJ knows that answer more than I do...

 

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk 2

 

 

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Seeing as most current lte devices are pcs g 5x5 only, I can't see sprint going 10x10 with g+h anytime in the next few years

 

Sent from my Galaxy Note 2 using Forum Runner

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Sprint desperately needs the H block spectrum to expand their 5x5 G block carrier to a 10x10 G+H block carrier.

 

I think that is an overstatement. If Sprint "desperately needs" the PCS/AWS-2 H block, then Sprint is in real trouble because the H block will not be commercially viable for another three years.

 

AJ

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