legion125

I think they are, but I don't know if they will bite. Most of Verizon's spectrum its selling is in metropolitan areas so Sprint might pull the trigger in those areas where it's weak. Sprint is really hurting for spectrum in the upper mid-west/west and could expand its native coverage there.

Great article. Being able to make calls over WiFi would be great for me. Reception inside my house is very poor and I can't seem to get my Airave to work. If I could make and receive calls via WiFi then all of my voice and data usage at work and home would be off the Sprint spectrum completely. Imagine how many more folks could be shifting their spectrum usage that way.

I don't understand why the carriers don't take advantage of this option. Sprint is already going to do it with data starting this year, so they may as well go all in to mitigate network traffic. This will be a reasonable option once VoLTE is instituted and the LTE pipeline starts to fill up.

One additional note about comments on Clearwire and Lightsquared not using all their spectrum. That's a little misleading by the comments of those officials. Not all spectrum is the same. 2600 sucks. Clearwire can't build out a nationwide network on that frequency as pointed out by earlier articles. and Lightsquared is screwed unless miraculously they get a spectrum swap deal.

LS2 has a reprieve so they may be able to get back in the game. I give them credit, they're not giving up. I think the whole industry is looking at DISH and seeing what they will do once the FCC approves their waiver and the LTE-A equipment is ready for commercial use. It would be exciting if both LS2 and DISH came on scene at the same time.

http://www.theverge....-debt-agreement

Good points, Granted there are still some technological hurdles to be addressed, one thing that I caught was that the FCC is finally looking at making rules so the carries will need to put LTE roaming agreements in place for the future. Of course. AT&T and Verizon are against this. The framework at least is being put in place.

Thanks Scott. I feel the same way in some respects. Loyalty is earned and it goes both ways. We are more of a commodity to Sprint since it must feel confident enough in the iPhone deal that it will draw in huge numbers of new customers. So I assume they feel they can lose a segment that has been with them for a while and still gain in numbers.

I thought since Sprint has done practically a 180 on how it perceives us - the customer in the past year and a half, it made me curious to see how the industry as a whole is fairing. As others have commented, Sprint has priced itself pretty close to being a "premium" carrier and depending where you live a determination of the type of coverage you receive compared to what you now pay is left to you.

Sprint isn't doing much IMO in the terms of retention's. I don't mean it has to give the farm away, but Sprint could decrease churn with a few incentives and getting rid of the "take it or leave it" approach you see now. Now that the 1st quarter is ending, I'll be curious to see how the figures look when they report in May.

If Apple announces this in October, this would be huge with the theoretical capabilities. A world iPhone. This would definitely give the Apple fans something to shout about since the other OEM's would be caught with their pants around their ankles. Good article Scott.

Good points, assuming that Clear get's its network turned on in time, I think it will draw plenty of business now that LS2 is out of the picture. I believe that many firms are just sitting on the fence waiting to see if Clear can actually produce which I can understand since many were left holding the bag with LS2 signing so many firms and never had anything to show for it.

Not that it was LS2's fault but Clear doesn't have a great track record itself in the funding and build out department.

Wow, must be good to be a Texan. I wish Ericsson was in my neighborhood they are kicking butt. But alas, I have Samsung doing my region. The slowest provider of NV rollouts so far although it's market is the largest but hasn't the population centers that Ericsson and A/L have. They don't even have to do the upper mid-west down to Wyoming since Sprint has no native coverage in that vast swath of territory. Now I now what the Phoenix people feel like.

It all comes down to who owns the name? Sprint or HTC?

Clear has some interesting options before it. I think Sprint (IMO) would like to keep Clear a separate entity so it can make these type of wholesale deals with its spectrum and become a stand alone firm without Sprint providing life support. Although with all the back and forth last year between the two, I think at times it would be easier to buy Clear and be done with it.

It's on Phonearena now. Big time!

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Sprint-to-launch-Samsung-GALAXY-Nexus-on-April-15th_id28178

Damn good news indeed!

Too bad, I thought Sprint would take advantage to have its 1st gen LTE phones future proofed for the network.

Good point. The carriers need options, but they should also be required to update in a timely manner IMO.

While I'm sure that you're being facetious, since Sprint doesn't have native coverage there (though they do have spectrum licenses in Guam as well as American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands) I seriously doubt that Guam is next up for NV.As far as PR & USVI, Sprint's customers there pay their $$ for service just like their customers in the CONUS so why should they automatically be relegated to the end of the list?

I was being facetious. Thanks for catching it.

Wow, the Territories before CONUS. I bet Guam is next up for NV.

Perhaps the cluster concept has something to do with that strategy and/or trying it to work the bugs out. Interesting concept. Is Ericsson and A/L doing it that way? Or is it a Samsung venture?

Good map. I speculated that due to the wide areas Samsung was responsible for in the west, they would hit the bigger metropolitan areas first and work its way outward along the interstates to get to the smaller markets. I'm sure this is how it was done in the past as well. This just confirms my theory .

Jumping up to Seattle was a surprise... But it makes sense they'd go for population over proximity. It's interesting the same preference wasn't given to Detroit though.

Since it and most of the west are in Samsung's sphere of influence, I would expect it will hit the major metropolitan areas first and spread along the interstates while working its way to the smaller markets. I think it's the most logical way to do it with the wide spaces its responsible for.

That and the GSll plus. Hope fully he's going to talk about the $2Billion he's going back to the well for.

Great, I get the slowest vendor who picked two of the most difficult cities to convert. I'm moving.

Good news all around and thanks for keeping us up to date. Looking at the responses, you would think Sprint might believe we would want to know whats going on.

I hope the Sprint GNex model has the Qualcomm radio instead of the Chinese knockoff that's in the Verizon version. Phone reception is reported to be inconsistent with whats in it now.

It's starting to get out to the rest of the world. Most likely an uprated Epic Touch.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/18/2807407/samsung-sgh-t999-sch-i535-sph-l710