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

[mrknowitall526]

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.

The premise, though, is that Clearwire was unlimited data. All of the current options are capped, at a low amount, at a ridiculously higher price than Clear. Clear was priced and treated like a true home ISP replacement. A mobile hotspot really is not.

[stuckinohio1]

The premise, though, is that Clearwire was unlimited data. All of the current options are capped, at a low amount, at a ridiculously higher price than Clear. Clear was priced and treated like a true home ISP replacement. A mobile hotspot really is not.

 

 

you know what i was told as a kid when i wanted something? "to bad". WiMax is dead, in a year or less you will be without an ISP. either go with another wireless service that has enough data (he said he only uses like 10 GB a month) or go without internet.

 

The choice is easy, you only need to make one.

[S4GRU]

Yes, Clearwire was a great deal. But Clearwire was going bankrupt.

[dedub]

Until www.freedompop.com stops selling wimax devices, then the end of wimax won't be any time soon.

 

Once they do pull all wimax devices, then I give it 6 months to a year.

Edited September 22, 2014 by dedub

[S4GRU]

Until www.freedompop.com stops selling wimax devices, then the end of wimax won't be any time soon.

 

Once they do pull all wimax devices, then I give it 6 months to a year.

They will be pulling some markets early. There are some markets where they can only achieve three 20MHz channels for LTE and CA. Sprint is planning to shut down WiMax early in these markets than the stated sunset date of December 31, 2015. Whenever they are ready to add the third channel.

 

Also, a few markets they are ripping and replacing Motorola equipment and Samsung equipment (in Nokia markets) at Clearwire sites and replacing with LTE Only 8T8R Equipment. Also, all Huawei equipment must be replaced before 2016. Where this happens, it may be one site here and one site there or market wide.

 

Very few WiMax markets will go through completely unscathed to the sunset date. Probably more than 3/4 of WiMax customers will have some sort of impact before the deadline.

 

But Sprint will be offering LTE devices to affected customers (but not likely MVNO customers). It is not likely though they will be allowed to keep their Clearwire plans though. They will likely be forced to a new Sprint plan, unless they are still on contract when it occurs. But I think all WiMax contracts will be exhausted by then.

[dedub]

They still have not notified any clear (or freedompop) customers, to my knowledge and I am a customer of both, to any such coverage, device, or plan changes.

[S4GRU]

They still have not notified any clear (or freedompop) customers, to my knowledge and I am a customer of both, to any such coverage, device, or plan changes.

 

They do not have to give any warning.  They do not guarantee service in any area.  They would likely give 30 days notice minimum though.  Freedompop may receive earlier warning from Sprint, depending on the terms of their contract.  Sprint has known they will be shutting down some WiMax early for over a year.  They even modified their terms for it.  So there is already likely a plan worked out with their MVNO's.

 

How or when the MVNO's pass on information to their customers is not Sprint's concern.  The MVNO's may give information far in advance, they may only give 30 days.  They may be completely inept and give none.  It will likely be highly variable from one MVNO to another.

[dedub]

They may or may not 'have' to give a warning, but any company worth their name ought to opt to provide as much warning as necessary, keeping in mind they not only have hotspot, but residential and BUSINESS customers on wimax services.

 

I am quite sure that the existing user base, while perhaps slowly dwindling on it's own, is not such an insignificant size to simply shut off with 30 days or less warning, especially if they want to attempt to transition them to a more expensive and/or more limited sprint specific service.

 

It is simply good business not to 'dump' your customers, regardless of the opinion of those customers on these forums.

[WiWavelength]

They may or may not 'have' to give a warning, but any company worth their name ought to opt to provide as much warning as necessary, keeping in mind they not only have hotspot, but residential and BUSINESS customers on wimax services.

 

Likely, many of these WiMAX MVNOs will simply close up shop.  Their business model will have failed.  That is why notice may be limited.

 

AJ

[S4GRU]

They may or may not 'have' to give a warning, but any company worth their name ought to opt to provide as much warning as necessary, keeping in mind they not only have hotspot, but residential and BUSINESS customers on wimax services.

 

I am quite sure that the existing user base, while perhaps slowly dwindling on it's own, is not such an insignificant size to simply shut off with 30 days or less warning, especially if they want to attempt to transition them to a more expensive and/or more limited sprint specific service.

 

It is simply good business not to 'dump' your customers, regardless of the opinion of those customers on these forums.

 

 

OK, so MVNO's may not be worth their salt.  I would suspect they are not.  I don't think many MVNO's have many business customers.  Why would Sprint make sure that their MVNO's give notice to their customers or not?  As AJ points out, I would suspect a lot of Clearwire MVNO's close shop at the end of WiMax.

[dedub]

I don't disagree about mnvo's, there is not a lot sprint can do about those, aside from whatever contract obligations provide.

 

And the wimax mnvo business may very well be insignificant.

 

My point is and has been pointed at sprint/clear, who can't really afford to dump on clear customers for a number of reasons;

 

1) it would be bad business plain and simple, sprint is trying to improve their image, not tarnish it further.

2) their current customers are obviously still a revenue stream that the competition hasn't already absorbed.

3) until the point where they do need to shut down the network, they obviously will want to keep such revenue streams. Entropy I think is the term, where the revenue stream and network costs (which ought to be minimal by now anyway) criss-cross.

4) they want and need to convert those customer to sprint services, so pissing them off is not a real good way to start that.

5) there is not only the clear customers, but also sprint's own pre-paid brands which sold wimax phones until recently. I believe there are already considerations for legacy sprint wimax phones (evo etc) and pre-paid phones in the T's&C's as has been mentioned.

 

In any case, I am not denying that wimax will eventually go away, but that it is in sprints best interest to be on top of the ball and be pro-active with their wimax user base.

 

The last thing sprint needs is a repeat of nextel.

[S4GRU]

I don't disagree about mnvo's, there is not a lot sprint can do about those, aside from whatever contract obligations provide.

 

And the wimax mnvo business may very well be insignificant.

 

My point is and has been pointed at sprint/clear, who can't really afford to dump on clear customers for a number of reasons;

 

1) it would be bad business plain and simple, sprint is trying to improve their image, not tarnish it further.

2) their current customers are obviously still a revenue stream that the competition hasn't already absorbed.

3) until the point where they do need to shut down the network, they obviously will want to keep such revenue streams. Entropy I think is the term, where the revenue stream and network costs (which ought to be minimal by now anyway) criss-cross.

4) they want and need to convert those customer to sprint services, so pissing them off is not a real good way to start that.

5) there is not only the clear customers, but also sprint's own pre-paid brands which sold wimax phones until recently. I believe there are already considerations for legacy sprint wimax phones (evo etc) and pre-paid phones in the T's&C's as has been mentioned.

 

In any case, I am not denying that wimax will eventually go away, but that it is in sprints best interest to be on top of the ball and be pro-active with their wimax user base.

 

The last thing sprint needs is a repeat of nextel.

 

Sounds good.  No one said Sprint is not going to give notice to their direct subs.  I said they would likely give 30 days minimum.  Maybe even more.  I wouldn't count on anything from an MVNO though.

[orangeblue]

They may or may not 'have' to give a warning, but any company worth their name ought to opt to provide as much warning as necessary, keeping in mind they not only have hotspot, but residential and BUSINESS customers on wimax services.

 

I am quite sure that the existing user base, while perhaps slowly dwindling on it's own, is not such an insignificant size to simply shut off with 30 days or less warning, especially if they want to attempt to transition them to a more expensive and/or more limited sprint specific service.

 

It is simply good business not to 'dump' your customers, regardless of the opinion of those customers on these forums.

 

I have to agree, Sprint needs the customers and the current Wimax subs are not motivated to switch considering that there is no alternative in mobile broadband. Freedompop is about to close on the one million accounts mark and these customers are 95% on Wimax. FP actually makes money. Not sure how Sprint is counting these subs because Wimax (clear) had still about 1.3 million customers active. 

 

Likely, many of these WiMAX MVNOs will simply close up shop.  Their business model will have failed.  That is why notice may be limited.

 

AJ

 

They may or may not or just transition to LTE.

 

Sounds good.  No one said Sprint is not going to give notice to their direct subs.  I said they would likely give 30 days minimum.  Maybe even more.  I wouldn't count on anything from an MVNO though.

 

I would expect Sprint to offer current Clear subs LTE modems and special plans to recapture as many as possible, much like Sprint did with Nextel subs.

[WiWavelength]

They may or may not or just transition to LTE.

 

And monkeys may or may not fly out of my butt.  Honest truth.

 

A "may or may not" statement might as well be left unsaid -- because the substance of the assertion is practically zero.

 

AJ

[orangeblue]

And monkeys may or may not fly out of my butt.  Honest truth.

 

A "may or may not" statement might as well be left unsaid -- because the substance of the assertion is practically zero.

 

AJ

 

FreedomPOP is transitioning already and started to sell LTE equipment. Fire sale on wimax. 

Netzero, who knows...

Karma, who cares...

 

Clear, many would like to know.

[dedub]

relevant to the discussion;

 

 

https://gigaom.com/2014/09/23/karma-updates-its-pay-as-you-go-hotspots-to-work-with-sprints-lte-network/

[dedub]

another link and more info;

 

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/mvno-karma-launches-first-lte-product-sprint-doubles-user-base-100000/2014-09-23

 

tri-band lte + 3g fallback

 

and... 

 

 

 

Karma will continue to support its existing WiMAX devices for at least another year and maybe into 2016. Van Wel said customers' data balances can be transferred from its WiMAX device to its new LTE device.

[S4GRU]

MVNO's are seeing the writing on the wall and moving themselves over to Sprint LTE.  Sprint is likely matching the Clearwire MVNO wholesale rate.  And since Sprint will be giving free devices and helping their own customers migrate, I see the WiMax sunset calamity being much ado about nothing.

[orangeblue]

MVNO's are seeing the writing on the wall and moving themselves over to Sprint LTE.  Sprint is likely matching the Clearwire MVNO wholesale rate.  And since Sprint will be giving free devices and helping their own customers migrate, I see the WiMax sunset calamity being much ado about nothing.

 

There used to be a lot of talk during Clearwire's conference calls how cheap they can transfer data to the customer compared to traditional networks. Any numbers on that?

[orangeblue]

another link and more info;

 

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/mvno-karma-launches-first-lte-product-sprint-doubles-user-base-100000/2014-09-23

 

tri-band lte + 3g fallback

 

and... 

 

I like the stock photo: an old wimax photon hotspot

[S4GRU]

There used to be a lot of talk during Clearwire's conference calls how cheap they can transfer data to the customer compared to traditional networks. Any numbers on that?

I believe that was relative to 3G networks. There is not likely a WiMax cost advantage now over LTE because of economies of scale.

[dedub]

I like the stock photo: an old wimax photon hotspot

 

I am pretty sure that is the new lte hotspot, just in the same form factor as the photon.

 

the gigaom link shows a different photo angle, it has different power/lights/usb port positions etc.

[orangeblue]

I believe that was relative to 3G networks. There is not likely a WiMax cost advantage now over LTE because of economies of scale.

 

I'm not sure because the CEO was bragging how they were able to deliver data cheaper as Verizon and AT&T. I think it was because Clearwire was an all IP based network? Not sure but how much does it actually cost Sprint right now to run the network.

[orangeblue]

I am pretty sure that is the new lte hotspot, just in the same form factor as the photon.

 

the gigaom link shows a different photo angle, it has different power/lights/usb port positions etc.

 

Nope, unless the new LTE modem is identical to the photon. Even the FP (blue) photon had little white rings around the LED's

[dedub]

The 2 identical photons I have (clear and freedom pop), the lights are on the opposite side as the usb plug.

 

Unless for some reason the karma device did not use the same photon as clear/freedompop, that appears to be a different device in the same form factor (as the articles mention, the new lte device is the same 'puck' as the wimax device).

 

In any case, I guess we will hopefully see FP and clear/sprint rolling these out themselves.