bigsnake49

Oh yeah they do. Sprint's portion of the spectrum, what they brought into the partnership, is owned outright. Sprint owned around 50MHz themselves and Nextel owned another 50MHz that they bought from MCI. Now I have no idea if Sprint has right of first refusal on any potential sale of that spectrum. It would be stupid if they didn't. You are right about the old Clearwire not owning a lot of spectrum and leasing it from educational institutions/churches.

Could it be that Sprint is buying Clearwire to sell their network and some of their spectrum to Dish, while keeping let's say about 80-100MHz that they brought in to themselves?

I agree with AJ, but only because I want Sprint to bid for PCS-H and also pick up any divestitures from Metro/T-Mobile. Unless the FCC's spectrum screen values Clearwire's spectrum much lower than PCS and 700/800MHz spectrum, this deal will put Sprint at a disadvantage. If they pay $3B for the shares and $5B for the debt, then it's money that could have been spent better elsewhere.

I could try to dig up the article, but I remember that Sprint's roaming cost was around $1B in 2009 or 2010. If they can reduce that to $250M, that will allow them to use that money for something else.

The proliferation of different frequencies to deploy LTE on will diminish the economies of scale. It will also diminish the possibility of global roaming.

Not to mention the much more efficient codecs for 1x Advanced vs VOLTE.

Yeah, if they actually did not force you into a contract, then the value plans would be worth it. As it is, thanks but no thanks, particularly with the reduced coverage vis a vis other providers.

Probably, the only Android manufacturer I would ever trust .

Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) has approached Dish Network Corp. (DISH) about a partnership that would allow the satellite-TV company to offer mobile-phone service over the carrier’s network, two people familiar with the matter said. Under the potential arrangement, discussed in recent months, Sprint would get access to Dish’s mobile airwaves, which aren’t currently being used, the people said. The companies could then share revenue from customers who sign up for a Dish wireless service, or Dish may pay Sprint a fee to use the network, according to one of the people, who asked not to be named because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly. The deal would vault Dish into the mobile-phone market without it having to build its own network, letting the company offer wireless service to its 14 million satellite-TV customers. Dish, which publicly expressed interest in such partnerships, said it won’t make a decision on the matter until a regulatory ruling on its airwaves that may come as soon as next week. “A Sprint partnership may be the best possibility,” said Tim Farrar, an analyst with TMF Associates Inc. in Menlo Park, California. “It could be quite disruptive.” ....................................................... http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-07/sprint-is-said-to-suggest-dish-partnership.html The article also suggested that both Sprint and Dish may bid for the H block.

They can very well put fiber on all the power poles everywhere in this country. The lectric utilities should have done it a long time ago.

Sprint slams Dish's latest spectrum proposal Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) blasted Dish Network's latest proposal to set aside 5 MHz of the lower portion of its spectrum as a "guard band" to protect the PCS H Block. Sprint said in a recent FCC filing that Dish's proposal would actually lead to an increased risk of interference in the H Block, which Sprint has indicated it wants to bid on next year to use for LTE. The jockeying between Sprint and Dish comes just days ahead of an FCC vote on rules for the terrestrial use of Dish's 40 MHz of spectrum, which is known as AWS-4, as well as rules for the auction of the H Block. The FCC will vote on those rules Dec. 12. Earlier this week Dish said it would be willing to accept changes to its spectrum holdings that would effectively make 5 MHz of its radio waves a "guard band" to protect the H Block, the upper portion of which runs from 1995-2000 MHz and sits directly adjacent to the lower portion of Dish's spectrum. Read more: Sprint slams Dish's latest spectrum proposal - FierceWireless http://www.fiercewir...7#ixzz2EOqeB3W8 I guess they are not BFF's yet. Now I don't understand why Sprint is worried about Dish's uplink interfering with Sprint's downlink.

I have seen you advocate the same with respect to Sprint's coverage.

Plus you have on air broadcast TV.

Yeah, what's that? 2% of the population? If you live on the farm, then sorry, that's what you get. Maybe if people didn't choose to live so far out in the boondocks they might have more choices. So much money wasted on freaking USF. The federal government could have created an end to end wireless network, covered 100% of the population for what they have spent on USF.

The market is mature now. There is not a lot of new subscribers to be had. Most people have at least 3 TV providers to choose from. There cannot be more than 3 competitors in a mature market.

This might prompt Samsung and Apple to become their own MVNO.

Dish and DirectTV should be allowed to merge. I don't think the market is big enough for two satellite providers. Then they can more effectively compete with AT&T/Verizon/Cablecos on the broadcast TV market.

They just might have to reopen some of them. We had one near my house, but it closed. I thought it was pretty busy. I'd like to see what they're going to do with this spectrum. If they plan to be yet another carrier, good luck to them, there's not enough money for 5 carriers in a mature market Even 4 carriers are one too many. Now if in addition to offering cell phone service they also used it for VOD and other OTT services, it might become useful. I personally think that they are making a feint to have somebody like AT&T buy off of them. If not and they actually develop a network, it will make it much easier for Sprint and T-Mobile to merge.

(DISH)’s Blockbuster will begin selling mobile phones in its movie-rental stores as a test for Dish’s planned entry into the wireless business, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Blockbuster recently started selling phones on its website under the banner “Blockbuster Mobile,” working with carriers such as Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) and T-Mobile USA. The effort will soon shift to Blockbuster’s roughly 850 retail locations, said the people, who asked not to be named because the plan hasn’t been announced. For Dish, a satellite-TV service provider that acquired the Blockbuster chain last year, the move may be a prelude to offering its own mobile-phone service. Dish has acquired a swath of wireless airwaves and is awaiting rules from the Federal Communications Commission governing how it can use them. http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-12-05/blockbuster-is-said-to-beging-selling-phones

Not a bad idea at all, since Sprint has no use for it anyway. Maybe they can swap? I know that the control channel for IDEN (PCH?) has to be located in the 800 SMR spectrum. At least that was a requirement way back when.

Southern Co, as well as FPL, have already strung many miles of fiber and or microwave, so it makes sense that they would provide their own voice as well. Both utilities also provide data services to other customers. Southern-Telecom has a lot of dark fiber.

What I would like for them to do is to sell Sprint the portion of SMR spectrum that limits Sprint to less than the 7x7Mhz they have elsewhere. In return Sprint can give them a big discount on LTE data. They can keep IDEN running for as long as they want for their own employees. Every utility runs some kind of LMR system but very few take 3.75x3.75MHz to do so. Too much spectrum for just LMR.

NII will sustain that industry for a while with their 11.4M customers. Motorola is probably selling the handsets at cost if you sign up for their pretty expensive maintenance contracts.

The Motorola i930 was an iDEN/GSM hybrid, although it only supported 900/1800/1900MHz GSM frequencies. I'm sure that they can definitely construct a hybrid IDEN/WCDMA phone. WCDMA chipsets are a dime a dozen, so it will be relatively cheap.

If you are refering to this portion: "In order to address the gap left by Sprint's iDEN network shutdown, Horsley said SouthernLinc plans to offer a "nationwide solution" in the near future. He declined to provide details. SouthernLinc could be planning to offer an MVNO service." It says that they will probably have a roaming solution. I personally think they will offer something running on AT&T's network since IDEN and GSM are using the same backend, MAP, with hybrid handsets. They might even offer nationwide PTT with a gateway between AT&T's Kodiak based system and IDEN. We will see.