Does Sprint have plans for service for WiMax home customers when the network shuts down?

[orangeblue]

Clearwire has currently about 1.2 million subs and I would hate for Sprint to lose them all. The number seems to be quite steady as people stay on their current plans with Clear

[S4GRU]

Clearwire has currently about 1.2 million subs and I would hate for Sprint to lose them all. The number seems to be quite steady as people stay on their current plans with Clear

The last remaining contingent are not likely going anywhere and holding on for dear life. They will want two things from Sprint to keep them through the end of WiMax. Cheap plans and unlimited. Sprint has to decide if they're worth it. If they don't think there's a payoff, they'll let them churn. And based on how bad it worked out for Clearwire, I'm dubious.

 

Robert via Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[KnarfOH]

1.2 million Clearwire customers. I pay $55 month for unlimited. I am in an area where I have no alternative for high speed internet. Downloads are less then 6 mb and most times closer to 4 mb. If there was an alternative, it most likely would be faster than Clearwire and people would switch. I suspect the 1.2 million that stay with Clearwire is because they are the only choice or reasonable choice in their area.

 

I know there are cheaper plans so let's say the average Clearwire customer pays $45 a month.

 

That is $648,000,000 a year. Sprint will throw us under the bus? And loose that money? Doesn't make sense to me!

 

These are customers they already have that they could easily transition with new equipment.

 

Is that amount of money small peanuts? What am I missing?

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[S4GRU]

1.2 million Clearwire customers. I pay $55 month for unlimited. I am in an area where I have no alternative for high speed internet. Downloads are less then 6 mb and most times closer to 4 mb. If there was an alternative, it most likely would be faster than Clearwire and people would switch. I suspect the 1.2 million that stay with Clearwire is because they are the only choice or reasonable choice in their area.

 

I know there are cheaper plans so let's say the average Clearwire customer pays $45 a month.

 

That is $648,000,000 a year. Sprint will throw us under the bus? And loose that money? Doesn't make sense to me!

 

These are customers they already have that they could easily transition with new equipment.

 

Is that amount of money small peanuts? What am I missing?

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

You must not heard of all the Nextel customers they let churn. Far more than there are Clearwire home ISP users left. That 1.2M is not all home users. Many are enterprise and MVNO customers to Clearwire. Also, some are Expedience customers who cannot be upgraded to LTE, really.

 

If it costs them $700m to make the $648m off you and it also hurts the performance of customers who pay them billions, then yes, they will let you churn. Your only hope with Sprint is if really good things come out of this DISH trial in Texas.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[KnarfOH]

YADA YADA YADA !! BLAH BLAH BLAH !!

 

I can't hear you!

 

Just like Jack Nicholson said in the movie "I can't stand the truth"

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Edited August 22, 2014 by KnarfOH

[S4GRU]

YADA YADA YADA !! BLAH BLAH BLAH !!

 

I can't hear you!

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

I have four kids. Now this I'm used to.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[lilotimz]

I have four kids. Now this I'm used to.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

Are we there yet?

 

[S4GRU]

Are we there yet?

 

No! We will not be at WiMax Decommissioning for a few more hours. I will tell you when we get there! Did you just roll your eyes at me?? Don't make me pull this network over! I'll give you such a high ping you won't be able to game for a week!

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[lilotimz]

No! We will not be at WiMax Decommissioning for a few more hours. I will tell you when we get there! Did you just roll your eyes at me?? Don't make me pull this network over! I'll give you such a high ping you won't be able to game for a week!

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

*looks at that wimax only protection sites with no sprint equipment*

[centermedic]

Are we there yet?

 

"The trip is the destination" aka Daddys revenge!!!!!

[bigsnake49]

Sprint needs to use EBS for something. They are leasing it, so it's costing them money, so they might as well do something with it before the leases expire. I don't believe they will need it for mobile bandwidth and even if they did, they cannot depend on it been there after the leases expire. The best use for it is for fixed broadband and the best partner is Dish. Dish has the installer network to install the outside antennas needed for good rf. I have not checked the power budgets allowed in the EBS band but I believe them to be substantial. The synergies between the two companies are substantial. Dish needs substantial bandwidth for their VOD and OTT video as well as their fixed broadband ambitions. Sprint can use Dish's midband spectrum adjacent to PCS G and can also use their media licensing to offer video to their mobile subscribers. It's a win-win situation.

[S4GRU]

Sprint needs to use EBS for something. They are leasing it, so it's costing them money, so they might as well do something with it before the leases expire. I don't believe they will need it for mobile bandwidth and even if they did, they cannot depend on it been there after the leases expire. The best use for it is for fixed broadband and the best partner is Dish. Dish has the installer network to install the outside antennas needed for good rf. I have not checked the power budgets allowed in the EBS band but I believe them to be substantial. The synergies between the two companies are substantial. Dish needs substantial bandwidth for their VOD and OTT video as well as their fixed broadband ambitions. Sprint can use Dish's midband spectrum adjacent to PCS G and can also use their media licensing to offer video to their mobile subscribers. It's a win-win situation.

EBS is not sitting there nationwide with a huge amount just waiting to be plundered. Some markets, Sprint has zero EBS and they depend on BRS completely. Some markets Sprint has no BRS and will use all the EBS for mobile data. Some markets Sprint has very little BRS and will use EBS nearly completely, not leaving enough for a home ISP option. And in some other EBS markets, the license holder kept some of the spectrum, and Sprint would not able to spare enough.

 

Also, the EBS spectrum is not completely contiguous, but made up of pieces. And some are less than 20MHz wide. Since Sprint 20MHz channels for mobile use take priority, this leaves a dwindling number of options in many markets for an EBS wireless ISP play.

 

However, it would leave maybe 40% - 50% of the country (by my best recollections) where Sprint could use EBS for at least one 20MHz dedicated Home ISP carrier. And many of those, could even do two or three.

 

So if Sprint was looking to do a geographically limited home ISP option with unallocated EBS resources, that could be doable. But it wouldn't be nationwide. I suppose it could if it was done in connection with Dish, because possibly some Dish spectrum could be used to augment areas where Sprint is not able to spare EBS.

 

But at this point, these are just maschinations of over thinking nerds. A lot would have to happen in a short amount of time to pull something like this off before the WiMax decommision deadline.

 

I think Sprint is convinced that doing a go-it-alone wireless ISP just like Clearwire is a losing proposition. And they are probably right. I think they may do it with Dish, where Dish handles all the field/home equipment setup and marketing, leaving Sprint to just run the network, provide some spectrum and reap rewards.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[z250kid]

There is AT&T DSL all around us, but not on this street or another small sub-division (on a different street) within 1/8 mile away. However, all the adjacent streets in this area have something available - just not us! It is like we are in a no man's land. I have lived here 13 years and from the day I moved in, AT&T was promising it was headed our way, instead no progress over all of those years. The cable company that serves this area was the old INSIGHT COMMUNICATIONS which Time-Warner purchased. Everything out here is the old analog type cable, i.e. not capable of handling internet or even the large catalog of TV channels you now see being offered on other systems. I was hoping that Time-Warner would at least upgrade the old INSIGHT system since they purchased them, but who knows if and when that will happen.

 

SPECIAL NOTE: Everything you mentioned (TWC/WOW/AT&T) is right around the block from us. We are completely surrounded by these services. I feel like a guy dying of thirst, but I can see the water!

 

Hopefully if Comcast buys out tw. You finally get reall internet. I use to have att uverse but now I'm on cable get 60mbps by 5. Night and day difference.

[superbluepsd]

I have Clearwire for my home ISP.   HughesNet is my only other option for high speed internet but one I will not entertain.    The local telco promised DSL in their entire footprint when our area was sold off by Verizon but they ran out of money and stopped upgrades 3 years ago.    I am no "power user" i only use around 10 gig a month on unlimited plan.    Its been fun but I have accepted the fact that the ride is over at the end of next year...    KnarfOH you should do the same.

[KnarfOH]

Its been fun but I have accepted the fact that the ride is over at the end of next year... KnarfOH you should do the same.

NO - You can't make me!

[bigsnake49]

I think Sprint is convinced that doing a go-it-alone wireless ISP just like Clearwire is a losing proposition. And they are probably right. I think they may do it with Dish, where Dish handles all the field/home equipment setup and marketing, leaving Sprint to just run the network, provide some spectrum and reap rewards.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

 

Well, we willl see at the conclusion of this trial down in Corpus Cristi. Ntelos and Dish are starting to offer service in some of Ntelos territory. I believe that  Dish and Sprint can make it work in places that the spectrum is available.

[orangeblue]

Now there is a lot of talk by some carriers to offer Multicast services. Could Sprint utilize the wimax network for this too, if they move the current customers off the network?

[gr8nuguy]

YADA YADA YADA !! BLAH BLAH BLAH !!

 

I can't hear you!

 

Just like Jack Nicholson said in the movie "I can't stand the truth"

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

the quote is actually "You can't handle the truth."  

 

[Vince]

All this talk of WISPs struck up a memory. Back in 2001, Sprint launched a broadband setup atop the Sears Tower. Anyone within a 35 mile radius (and a line of sight) could get internet at home. I wonder if they could ever fire up something like this, only faster. It was pretty popular here, and I still see the antenna on houses here and there.

 

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-03-26/business/0103260234_1_sprint-service-high-speed-internet-service-cable-modem-service '> http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-03-26/business/0103260234_1_sprint-service-high-speed-internet-service-cable-modem-service

[KnarfOH]

the quote is actually "You can't handle the truth."

 

 

I was paraphrasing and putting it in the first person. I just rewatched that movie the other day.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[telefunken]

wimax is dead, and no one here cares, sure.

 

but the wimax network held up pretty much fine for the most part, in the face of all the 'abusers' and along with the non-abusers, for the last 4-some years.

 

Just because clearwire business failed, doesn't mean the network couldn't, didn't, or can't handle it (be it wimax, or lte), because clearly it did and has handled it.

 

In any case, sprint is not or has not yet directly communicated it's future plans with it's current wimax customers, other than the publicly stating that wimax will eventually be shut down.

 

I was always impressed with how well Sprint/Clearwire did with WiMax in Nashville, my neighbor used to be a Sprint exec and when they were courting HCA he let me tag along to them visiting cell sites. Back when that was the only 4G around for Sprint I could hit as high as 15Mbps. My only beef with WiMax was the coverage.

 

Incidentally I am going to buy that 30GB data bucket to help my parents limp a long as their new house can't get any landline service. Until I am make enjoy people annoyed that Comcast/AT&T runs service to them, or setup a PTP to a LOS building that can get better service.

[exadyne]

WiMax isn't horrible, LTE had plenty of initial problems too, it is just a matter of WiMax didn't receive the development LTE did. Take a look at the characteristics of WiMax2 - it isn't that far off from LTE-A. As I see it, most of the reason the industry wanted LTE was politics - LTE was developed by 3GPP group, and so is a cellular trade group. WiMax came from IEEE.
Most of the things people complain about WiMax are actually problems with Sprint's WiMax network. Most of the real problems with WiMax that made it lose to IEEE are things users never even really experienced or would realize.

[WiWavelength]

As I see it, most of the reason the industry wanted LTE was politics - LTE was developed by 3GPP group, and so is a cellular trade group. WiMax came from IEEE.

 

Bingo.  You nailed it.

 

AJ

[exadyne]

As far as the original poster or anyone else who can't wired service to their house, I suggest you go to your township hall or city hall. Ask to see the franchise agreement signed with providers and see what it says about guaranteeing coverage. Charter cable covers my area and when I moved in, they told me they wouldn't offer me cable even though my neighbor had it. I got the franchise agreement that said they have to provide coverage to every lineal mile that has at least 5 residences, which was true for me. I then told them I'd sue if they didn't install, and I wouldn't sue for the to install at my house, I'd sue for the township to be free of their contract.

[stuckinohio1]

why not just go with sprint or verizon or AT&Ts own services then? sprint has 12GB of month for data at $79.99 and verizon has 10GB for $60. i didnt look into AT&T but it looks like you still have options open if you are willing to spend like $20 more a month.

 

 

actually i have no idea how much the wimax service costs but i was thinking like $59.00/mo or &69.99/mo

 

Either way your not out of luck you just need to go with another carrier.