Change in Terms & Conditions - New Agreements on the Sprint 4G (WiMAX) Network

[gameaddict8]

Victory 4g lte has jellybean

 

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[Rocket87]

Victory 4g lte has jellybean

 

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The victory for post paid is not being sold in stores after the next planogram change I've been told. Sprint will still have the SAYGO model though.

 

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[takabanana]

Actually looking forward to this - I hope the availability/signup announcement (for singing up for the Transition plan - getting a "standard" LTE device) will be obvious as I would hate to miss it...

 

[ericdabbs]

Anyone go to their local Sprint store and ask the CSRs about this and to see what LTE phones would be available?

[SeanK_]

Ok, so I called Sprint again to confirm as I was getting different answers and none of it was making any kind of sense. But as of right now this promotion isn't happing, Sprint said they are letting customers know about this now so that later *this year* they will make an announcement via email, text and newsroom for the folks who are on WiMAX to either get a free smartphone (any smartphone on the Sprint market without using an upgrade or extending their contract another two years) or cancel their service without paying ETF and or stay with their WiMAX phone but without being able to use 4G WiMAX. So again, Sprint won't allow customers to take avantage of this as of yet.

[ChadBroChillz]

Ok, so I called Sprint again to confirm as I was getting different answers and none of it was making any kind of sense. But as of right now this promotion isn't happing, Sprint said they are letting customers know about this now so that later *this year* they will make an announcement via email, text and newsroom for the folks who are on WiMAX to either get a free smartphone (any smartphone on the Sprint market without using an upgrade or extending their contract another two years) or cancel their service without paying ETF and or stay with their WiMAX phone but without being able to use 4G WiMAX. So again, Sprint won't allow customers to take avantage of this as of yet.

 

I am not surprised. I believe Sprint still has to pay a fixed fee for every WiMax device regardless of whether it actually uses the WiMax network, but I believe next year or the year after, Sprint will switch from pay a fixed fee to paying per usage, so Sprint could be planning on shutting down service, so they do not have to pay Clearwire anything for the remainder of their WiMax contract.  If they actually got Clearwire, they could use this clause to just replace WiMax equipment with LTE instead of LTE/WiMax like clearwire is doing now. 

[SeanK_]

Are the basic phones like the Rumor Reflex on WiMax too? Because if they are you'll need to pay $10 on your plan which people are going to get upset about.

[ericdabbs]

Ok, so I called Sprint again to confirm as I was getting different answers and none of it was making any kind of sense. But as of right now this promotion isn't happing, Sprint said they are letting customers know about this now so that later *this year* they will make an announcement via email, text and newsroom for the folks who are on WiMAX to either get a free smartphone (any smartphone on the Sprint market without using an upgrade or extending their contract another two years) or cancel their service without paying ETF and or stay with their WiMAX phone but without being able to use 4G WiMAX. So again, Sprint won't allow customers to take avantage of this as of yet.

 

Later on this year huh....I highly doubt the "free LTE phone" will be available to any LTE phone in their lineup.  It would be awesome if you could get the Note 3 under this promotion.

 

I wonder if this is limited to only customers that are still under contract or just any Wimax customers.  My contract officially ends in August this year but I plan to keep using my Wimax phone until the Note 3 comes out since I want that tri-band LTE.  I wonder if I would qualify under these terms since I am not technically under contract anymore by October but I am still using a Wimax phone and I can say I need an incentive for me to switch.  Hell I don't mind signing up a new 2 year contract if that meant I would get the Note 3 for free.

[yutaka731]

I walked into the Santa Monica Sprint store and the representive at first didn't know what I was talking about. He read the text of the Terns and Conditions and said Sprint was just preparing to phase out WiMax. The offer, in other words, would be only be available later on.

 

Speaking of WiMax in Santa Monica, it must have been hard to sell WiMax-capable phones because the city prevented the roll out of WiMax towers. Fortunately, LTE towers are not suffering the same fate.

 

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[SeanK_]

I highly doubt the "free LTE phone" will be available to any LTE phone in their lineup.

I guess you'll have to wait and see

[iansltx]

I half-think that this move is a partial poison pill for Dish. If Dish somehow buys all of Clearwire, Sprint turns off WiMAX on everyone's phones, swaps most WiMAXers to LTE, and leaves Dish without Clearwire's largest revenue source.

 

On the positive side of things, if Sprint can get all of their subs off of WiMAX quickly after they buy up Clearwire, they can drop WiMAX service to a single 10MHz, or even 5MHz, channel per sector in many areas to make room for TD-LTE.

 

I mean, since everyone seems to be pushing folks off of old networks (iDEN SMR for Sprint, MetroPCS CDMA for T-Mobile) you might as well add one more tech to the trend.

 

As opposed to Verizon, who won't sell LTE (yet) to anyone except postpaid, Jet Pack and iPad + 4G customers.

[WiWavelength]

On the positive side of things, if Sprint can get all of their subs off of WiMAX quickly after they buy up Clearwire, they can drop WiMAX service to a single 10MHz, or even 5MHz, channel per sector in many areas to make room for TD-LTE.

 

Do not take this as the final word, but in my engineering screen and spectrum analyzer observations, I have not found a Clearwire site with greater than one WiMAX carrier per sector.  For technical, regulatory, and/or unknown reasons, Clearwire chose to forgo unity frequency reuse, to instead employ a frequency reuse pattern.  Put simply, each sector in a given area has a WiMAX carrier with a different center frequency.  Typical frequency reuse patterns in a sectorized network are N=3×3 and N=4×3.  In either case, even with only one 10 MHz TDD WiMAX carrier per sector, Clearwire has around 100 MHz tied up in WiMAX.

 

AJ

[ChadBroChillz]

Unless Sprint is planning on becoming a fixed wireless broadband supplier, I expect that as soon as Sprint customers are off wimax, they will shut all of wimax down. I believe Sprint could increase their profits by doing so, but I am not sure if it is in the cards. 

[ericdabbs]

I don't know what Sprint would be waiting for? Lets start getting the news out to sprint corporate stores and offer Wimax customers the option to switch to LTE by offering free LTE smartphones.  If Sprint were smart, they would try to get the majority of Wimax customers off by end of 2013 since the contract terms change where they pay by usage instead of fixed.

[Rocket87]

I don't know what Sprint would be waiting for? Lets start getting the news out to sprint corporate stores and offer Wimax customers the option to switch to LTE by offering free LTE smartphones. If Sprint were smart, they would try to get the majority of Wimax customers off by end of 2013 since the contract terms change where they pay by usage instead of fixed.

 

 

I am sure that would have a huge cost and losses subsidizing that many phones, this is just to cover Sprint ass so they don't have to pay Charlie if he gets clearwire or something.

 

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[mikejeep]

The T&C update was probably just an early heads up / CYA thing to keep Sprint's options open down the road. I doubt any major Wimax decisions will be made until they know for sure what is going to happen with Clearwire. Sprint certainly seems to have the leverage to dictate how things will play out, but you never know..

 

-Mike

[ericdabbs]

I am sure that would have a huge cost and losses subsidizing that many phones, this is just to cover Sprint ass so they don't have to pay Charlie if he gets clearwire or something.

 

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I understand it will be a huge cost to subsidize that many LTE phones but at the same time Sprint can limit the choice of LTE phones available in this promotion. But I think the bigger costs are the monetary costs to keep both LTE and Wimax networks running and the opportunity cost of using that spectrum for TD-LTE.

 

From what AJ said earlier, Wimax seems to take up a ton of spectrum up to 100 MHz.  That needs to go away and make room for contiguous spectrum blocks for TD-LTE.

[jamesinclair]

A lot of Wimax customers that signed up in 2011 like myself are due for an upgrade this year and I know most can't wait to get off the Wimax network.  I really want to help Sprint out here by moving over from WiMax to LTE but Sprint needs to offer that tri-band LTE phone at this point for me to pick up now and re-up with them.  I know I am not alone on this.  The earliest I see a mass move from Wimax to LTE will be later on this year as the NV project progresses and more areas are lit up with LTE and tri-band LTE smartphones are released.

 

Yeah Im in an area with wimax but no LTE.

 

Its not much of an incentive if "upgrade" actually means "downgrade".

 

 

As for the OP, its the same policy Verizon did with Altell. Good customer service.

[ericdabbs]

Yeah Im in an area with wimax but no LTE.

 

Its not much of an incentive if "upgrade" actually means "downgrade".

 

 

As for the OP, its the same policy Verizon did with Altell. Good customer service.

 

I understand that even when Sprint runs this promotion of trying to kick off Wimax customers to LTE that not everyone will be satisfied since not every market has LTE yet.  I am just curious what LTE devices will Sprint offer in the promotion to keep customers around.  I hope its Sprint doesn't offer the lower end LG Viper, Galaxy Victory, Sprint Force/Flash/Vital LTE phones for free.  If that is the case, I don't mind paying for my Note 3 and reupping my contract.

[yutaka731]

I am going to assume the offer is for a lower-end LTE-capable phone and will be able to take advantage of this AND get a new (better) phone like the Note 3 when renewing my contract.

 

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[Ryannoh_]

Im due for a upgrade right now. Will i be fine with a iphone 5?

[S4GRU]

Im due for a upgrade right now. Will i be fine with a iphone 5?

 

Depends on where you live and where you go.

 

Robert

[z250kid]

I don't know but maybe they want to take the Wimax down and have Clear turn it in to lte?  If sprints letting you upgrade early Id do it!!!

[ericdabbs]

I don't know but maybe they want to take the Wimax down and have Clear turn it in to lte?  If sprints letting you upgrade early Id do it!!!

 

That is exactly what Sprint wants to do.  With the chances of Sprint buying out Clearwire entirely very bright now,  the next step is to begin planning to deploy TD-LTE on a wide scale the way that Sprint intended the Wimax footprint to look like.  This means that the 2.5 GHz spectrum in contiguous blocks need to be freed up from Wimax to deploy TD-LTE.  

 

I think with these Wimax changes in terms & conditions it really only affects those who bought Wimax phones in 2012 and prepaid.  I know most people that bought Wimax phones in 2011 like myself plan to upgrade to LTE phones sometime before the end of this year.

[mrknowitall526]

So, now that the deal is complete, what does that mean for this policy?  Can I get a free LTE hotspot to replace my Wimax hotspot?  I have 1 year left on the contract.