What will Sprint do with Clearwire now that it owns it?

[The Dave]

As much as it sucks to have to hand out those pink slips, especially in this economy, it has to happen. Carrying too heavy of a payroll burden would only hold Sprint back while it tries to slim down to a more profitable and forward thinking business model.

[Mobilesolutions]

As much as it sucks to have to hand out those pink slips, especially in this economy, it has to happen. Carrying too heavy of a payroll burden would only hold Sprint back while it tries to slim down to a more profitable and forward thinking business model.

Purchase Eon & dominate the world.

-Will

[The Dave]

Purchase Eon & dominate the world.-Will

Mwahahahaha!

 

[superbluepsd]

I too am a Clearwire home isp sub and have been for 3 years.    I am a rural customer, actually I am out of Clearwires service area and had to fib a little on my service address to sign up.    Unfortunately for me there is no other broadband option except for satellite which is an option I will not entertain,    The most data I have ever used is 8Gig in a month.    I use more data on my smart phone than I do at home each month.   So I guess my only option is to ride this out until I get the service cancellation notice from Clear/Sprint which will be the end of home internet access for me.   I should quit paying the universal connectivity fee since its doing nothing for me...   Very sad considering the big push for rural broadband and last mile connectivity.   

[The Dave]

Sprint offers broadband plans up to 12 gigs of data a month. You can also look into freedompop. If you only use up to 8 gigs a month, those could be workable options.

[WiWavelength]

I should quit paying the universal connectivity fee since its doing nothing for me...   Very sad considering the big push for rural broadband and last mile connectivity.   

 

You misconstrue the Universal Service Fee.  The purpose is not what it can do for you personally -- the purpose is what it can do for others and society as a whole.

 

AJ

[superbluepsd]

You misconstrue the Universal Service Fee. The purpose is not what it can do for you personally -- the purpose is what it can do for others and society as a whole.

 

AJ

Well AJ you are correct, instead of ranting I should have just stated that the UCF won't benefit me or others in my area. Our local telco was bought out years ago by Frontier with the promise of extending dsl throughout their rural footprint subsidized by the UCF. Needless to say those plans have been scraped as they have run out of money.

[AJC1973]

You misconstrue the Universal Service Fee.  The purpose is not what it can do for you personally -- the purpose is what it can do for others and society as a whole.

 

AJ

 

Well AJ you are correct, instead of ranting I should have just stated that the UCF won't benefit me or others in my area. Our local telco was bought out years ago by Frontier with the promise of extending dsl throughout their rural footprint subsidized by the UCF. Needless to say those plans have been scraped as they have run out of money.

While im not very fond of the whole "it takes a village" mentality most people wouldnt know that they were paying for this if the companies didnt include it in their bill..  technically its the telecoms paying it, they put it in your monthy bill to make you ask why "you" are paying this fund.  and make you think its not affecting you..

 

 even if the money from your bill isnt probably going directly to that actual charge.. its a way for the telecoms to say we are paying this and this in taxes we want you the consumer to bitch to congress to get rid of these taxes... 

 

even if you the consumer can get congress to repeal those taxes the telecoms will just take line item off your bill and still charge you what they were... its a tactic apparently a good one... 

[Tom_in_Delaware]

"Ask not what your network can do for you-- ask what you can do for your network!"

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

[Fraydog]

Unfortunately, people are going to have to make choices to live in places where broadband connectivity is assured. That's going to be a new staple of 21st century life. Places that don't get on the ball deserve to be left behind, IMHO.

[The Dave]

It seems like in this age, being nearly 2014, there is no technical reason why people in a rural area can't receive a high speed broadband option. It just doesn't fit into the cable/telco plan for high yield profit margin to do so. That shouldn't be the only driving force, but unfortunately it is.

[hescominsoon]

You're going to be hard-pressed nowadays to find any wireless provider that tolerates that level of usage. Heck, even Comcast plans on capping most of their subscribers at 300GB. While I agree that anybody who advertises "unlimited" should stay true to the definition of that word, Clear has had a soft cap of about 100GB for some time now, and you should consider yourself lucky that you've managed to avoid it.

 

Perhaps Verizon will let you combine and subscribe to two DSL lines to your house? That should give you almost the same speed, albeit at a higher price. Unless you want to cut back on usage or shell out thousands for someone to run a dedicated T-1/T-3 or MetroE connection to your house, that may be your only option. Apart from petitioning your local government to bring better broadband to your town, that is.

Comcast doesn't actively enforce those caps in most markets right now.  HOwever that's most likely going to change.  As a former tech for a dialup ISP back int he day the term unlimited means an unlimited connection...aka no disconnection timeouts.  That's been the legal definition used.  I asked my father-in-law about this(once i married my wife about 11 years ago) and according to him (and a couple of judges he knows) as long as it's defined that way they are within the letter of the law.  They are perfectly allowed to cap..meter..throttle your speeds or the amount of data you can transfer...but since they do not actively and purposefully kick you off after a certain amount of time the ISP's are legally covered.

[hescominsoon]

I've been with Clear for over 3 years. I signed up with Clear, not Sprint.

Clear = Sprint now..

[hescominsoon]

Yes, I'm OK with it.  Clearwire's business model was unsustainable.  You were going to lose service no matter what.  You have no choice but to move on because Clearwire was on their way to an eventual bankruptcy.  It's the end of the road.  Since you had a one sided relationship, of course you're sad to see it go.  But Sprint is not the boogey man here.  

 

And many wired ISP's nowadays won't even allow over 300GB of usage in a month.  You are a heavy user, and not well suited for a wireless situation.  Wireless networks are a shared resource.

 

Robert

So are wired networks.  it's all jsut a matter of where the sharing starts.

[koiulpoi]

So are wired networks.  it's all jsut a matter of where the sharing starts.

Surely you must understand that the amount of usable spectrum in the universe is a much more limited resource than the ability of fiber. It is much easier for an individual to negatively affect many others in a wireless environment than a wired one.

[hescominsoon]

Limited to a point yes..i am a ham radio license holder..  HOwever this shortage is mostly manufactured by the fact ALL of the wireless companies are sitting on large swaths of spectrum.  Modern technology is driving wireless growth BUT it will also drive efficiencies as well.  

[bandwithhog]

Limited to a point yes..i am a ham radio license holder..  HOwever this shortage is mostly manufactured by the fact ALL of the wireless companies are sitting on large swaths of spectrum.  Modern technology is driving wireless growth BUT it will also drive efficiencies as well.  

You are so right about that and considering Sprint's "new" Clearwire spectrum which has not even been fully utilized. They have so much spectrum and I hope they start using the service and yes it would support home Internet services and I would not mind to be limited to 5-10MB. Honestly, I don't need 70+ MB download speed in my line of work.

[Fraydog]

You are so right about that and considering Sprint's "new" Clearwire spectrum which has not even been fully utilized. They have so much spectrum and I hope they start using the service and yes it would support home Internet services and I would not mind to be limited to 5-10MB. Honestly, I don't need 70+ MB download speed in my line of work.

I'm sure Sprint will be game for leasing of rural TD-LTE spectrum, they should have a TD-LTE in Rural America program. Would help extend Sprint's reach.

[gnoj]

Comcast doesn't actively enforce those caps in most markets right now.  HOwever that's most likely going to change.  As a former tech for a dialup ISP back int he day the term unlimited means an unlimited connection...aka no disconnection timeouts.  That's been the legal definition used.  I asked my father-in-law about this(once i married my wife about 11 years ago) and according to him (and a couple of judges he knows) as long as it's defined that way they are within the letter of the law.  They are perfectly allowed to cap..meter..throttle your speeds or the amount of data you can transfer...but since they do not actively and purposefully kick you off after a certain amount of time the ISP's are legally covered.

 

Hence why I said that Comcast plans to cap. The trials they are running now with those caps in certain markets are merely marketing and psychological experiments to see how they can roll out the caps with as little backlash as possible.

 

As for the definition of unlimited, sure for dialup it meant time spent online, since that's how it was billed. Since modern broadband connections are billed either a flat rate for unlimited or a metered rate per MB or GB, that definition for unlimited doesn't really apply anymore.

[S4GRU]

Limited to a point yes..i am a ham radio license holder..  HOwever this shortage is mostly manufactured by the fact ALL of the wireless companies are sitting on large swaths of spectrum.  Modern technology is driving wireless growth BUT it will also drive efficiencies as well.  

 

This is true...in rural and tertiary markets.  It is not true in primary and most secondary markets.  Sprint could deploy a home ISP in rural areas no problem with their current spectrum without impacting their mobile plans the next few years.  But not in places like New York City or Las Vegas.

 

Robert

[CAREND]

This is true...in rural and tertiary markets.  It is not true in primary and most secondary markets.  Sprint could deploy a home ISP in rural areas no problem with their current spectrum without impacting their mobile plans the next few years.  But not in places like New York City or Las Vegas.

 

Robert

 

<offtopic> I'm hungry because all i read was teriyaki and prime rib, corn ears and New York Strip. </offtopic>

 

Metropolitan and urban areas will never utilize wifi and wireless efficiently, nto witht he explosion of tech and mobility.  Rural areas will benefit the greatest from this form of expansion and may off suburban areas of relief.

[mozamcrew]

This is true...in rural and tertiary markets.  It is not true in primary and most secondary markets.  Sprint could deploy a home ISP in rural areas no problem with their current spectrum without impacting their mobile plans the next few years.  But not in places like New York City or Las Vegas.

 

Robert

 

In some ways this is perfect, because the areas that DON'T have cable and/or DSL are usually rural or edge areas anyhow. Areas where there isn't dense enough population to justify wiring up a whole neighborhood.

[S4GRU]

In some ways this is perfect, because the areas that DON'T have cable and/or DSL are usually rural or edge areas anyhow. Areas where there isn't dense enough population to justify wiring up a whole neighborhood.

 

I agree.  I think Sprint should offer a rural home ISP service.  One 20MHz carrier on rural sites can carry bootloads of rural customers.  The site next to my home in New Mexico would be greatly under utilized with a 20MHz TDD carrier.  At worst, it would probably run 10% of capacity.  However, the only terra-based ISP you can get in that area is Windstream DSL limited to 3-12Mbps, depending on how far you are from the DSLAM.  Sprint could sell a great service to those people without sacrificing performance to the mobile customers.

 

Robert

[mozamcrew]

I agree.  I think Sprint should offer a rural home ISP service.  One 20MHz carrier on rural sites can carry bootloads of rural customers.  The site next to my home in New Mexico would be greatly under utilized with a 20MHz TDD carrier.  At worst, it would probably run 10% of capacity.  However, the only terra-based ISP you can get in that area is Windstream DSL limited to 3-12Mbps, depending on how far you are from the DSLAM.  Sprint could sell a great service to those people without sacrificing performance to the mobile customers.

 

Robert

 

As long as they limit this to customers on sites like this that have low utililzation (and thus plenty of spare band 41 spectrum to spare), I think this would be great. I'd suggest a price simlar to what Wildblue or Dish charge(and thus higher than most DSL/Cable plans) to encourage those that HAVE access to a wired connection to opt for that instead.

 

Sprint gets additional revenue, and since the costs of running a site like this are mostly fixed, this is good for the bottom line. Also, it puts the screws to ol' Charlie since TD-LTE will be much better than the crappy Dish internet service.

[centermedic]

I agree.  I think Sprint should offer a rural home ISP service.  One 20MHz carrier on rural sites can carry bootloads of rural customers.  The site next to my home in New Mexico would be greatly under utilized with a 20MHz TDD carrier.  At worst, it would probably run 10% of capacity.  However, the only terra-based ISP you can get in that area is Windstream DSL limited to 3-12Mbps, depending on how far you are from the DSLAM.  Sprint could sell a great service to those people without sacrificing performance to the mobile customers.

 

Robert

Doing something along those lines can also win Sprint some friends at the FCC.