Sprint signs on customers for LTE Wholesale deals.

[legion125]

What do you think? Sprint already has been talking about capacity crunch in the next several years. Will this just accelerate the issue?

 

http://www.fiercewir...city/2012-03-08

[lrmcgarvey]

I know sprint needs the money, but I don't like it. The 5x5 they are rolling out is not huge.

 

Just looks like are once again willing to saturate thier network with wholesale customers while thier postpaid customers suffer.

 

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[legion125]

Eventually Sprint will have to refarm it's spectrum once NV is complete and the push for VoLTE begins in earnest. This should help Sprint in the long run since they won't have diffent technologies all competing for spectrum. Give Verizon credit, they will soak you for every dime you have but you can't complain about the direction its going with it's network. Very good strategic planning goes on at Big Red. I'm also waiting to see how the Clearwire saga turns out and perhaps we'll have a DISH sideshow to watch as well. Could be entertaining.

[S4GRU]

I think this will work out for Sprint customers in the long run. Since capacity isn't going to be an issue for a long time with Sprint being able to deploy an 800 LTE carrier in most places, and the vast amount of 2500/2600 carriers that can be deployed via Clearwire. Anything that helps Sprint reverse its financial condition is OK by me.

 

However, there is a part of me that wants to be selfish with our new LTE network!

 

"My precious, my precious!!!"

[themuffinman]

This is great, what sprint needs is a constant revenue stream. I would say that there are many sprint customers that are on the fence when it comes to decision of either switching or staying and there is only but so much nickel and diming you can do to your customers before they leave so getting these wholesale contracts will be key to their growth, which in turn will benefit the rest of us as well.

[Sgt. Slaughter]

Anything that can help them get books n order and help them fund clearwire more that would allow clear to deploy lte on every NV tower is welcome in my book.

But if they are going to flood it and turn the LTE into the current saturated 3G then give me my yearly upgrade back please at least!

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Edited March 8, 2012 by Sgt. Slaughter

[ericdabbs]

I know sprint needs the money, but I don't like it. The 5x5 they are rolling out is not huge.

 

Just looks like are once again willing to saturate thier network with wholesale customers while thier postpaid customers suffer.

 

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Well I am kinda for this if this will help Sprint with gaining some additional revenue. Keep in mind that Sprints capacity at 1900 Mhz with a 5x5 is not exactly half the capacity of Verizon's LTE 700 Mhz network with 10x10 because since Sprint is deploying LTE at a higher frequency which has more capacity to support a lot more customers even though its got half the bandwidth. I am sure the 5x5 carrier is sufficient for now even if they added some wholesale customers. Remember that Sprint only has about 33 mil postpaid customers unlike Verizon who has about 100+ mil customers and they seem to be ok with a 10x10 configuration so far.

 

Obviously Sprint needs to get at least another 5x5 carrier to support additional capacity and next year the 800 Mhz will be freed up to provide another 5x5 carrier. I am curious where Sprint is getting these wholesale customers though. I hope between Sprint and Clearwire that they steal all of Lightsquareds wholesale customers. Lightsquared is toast.

[legion125]

I certainly agree Sprint needs the revenue, but I feel better now that some of you who know more about this don't think it will be a big issue (at least not yet).