Tag Archive for "Sprint" tag

During its fourth quarter 2008 earnings call today, Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff remained guarded about the exact number of markets the WiMAX provider will launch this year, but rattled off a list of at least eight markets where he said he expects the Clear-branded service will make its debut. Those markets include Las Vegas, Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia and Dallas/Ft. Worth. In addition, the company will convert existing pre-WiMAX markets in Seattle, Honolulu and Charlotte to mobile WiMAX and expand the coverage area in Baltimore, which is a Sprint Xohm market that will be converted to Clear.  

The company also reported consolidated revenue of $20.5 million. Average revenue per user was up 10 percent to $39.70, up from $36.09 in fourth quarter of 2007.  The number of VoIP customers also doubled from 10 percent in in the year-ago quarter to 20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009. The company added 5,000 net new subscribers for a total subscriber base of 475,000.  Churn was 2.8 percent, up from 2.4 percent in the prior year’s quarter.

Here’s a breakdown of the other key points from the announcement:

Markets: By the end of 2010, Wolff said that the Clearwire network will cover 120 million covered POPs and that will include markets such as New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Houston and San Francisco.  However, he also added that the company does not need to expand to 100 markets for it to succeed. Nationwide roaming is not a requirement for success, he said, adding that the company will launch a dual-mode WiMAX/CDMA 1xEVDO modem this summer that will let customers roam on Sprint’s 3G network when out of the Clearwire service area. 

Devices: Wolff talked about a “personal” hotspot device that will launch at the end of the month that will combine WiMAX and WiFi and he said that there will be at least 100 mobile WiMAX devices–including laptops, netbooks, handhelds and USB modems available to customers by year-end.  

MSOs and other resellers: Expect the cable companies and Sprint to begin selling WiMAX services in the second half of the year. Both are collaborating with Clearwire on product development.

Backhaul: The company says that 70 percent of the Las Vegas and Atlanta markets will use microwave technology for backhaul because it is much cheaper than using terrestrial backhaul.

Cash: Wolff says the company is managing and conserving its cash so it can go until 2011 without additional funding. The company expects to spend between $1.5 billion and $1.9 billion this year.

For more:
- See this press release

Related articles:
Clearwire investors gain larger stake in company
The pros and cons of Clearwire
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RadioShack will begin selling certain Verizon Wireless handsets in some of its stores beginning today, according to the blog Boy Genius Report.

The report shows screenshots of RadioShack’s billing system with prices for handsets such as Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Storm, LG’s Dare and enV2 and the Samsung Knack. The report said the handsets would not be sold at all RadioShack stores, at least initially.

The rumor first appeared earlier this week on the website phonenews.com. RadioShack and Verizon ended their relationship in the summer of 2005 and RadioShack revamped its wireless retail business. The company has continued to sell phones through AT&T Mobility and Sprint Nextel. The move would make sense in the wake of the liquidation of Circuit City (and the elimination of Verizon jobs at Circuit City stores), and as RadioShack looks to increase its mobile retail market share. RadioShack has recently been revamping its displays to compete directly with Best Buy and has opened three stores in the Dallas area that are focused on selling mobile devices, taking a page from Best Buy’s free-standing mobile stores. 

When contacted earlier this week, a Verizon spokeswoman declined to comment on the development.

For more:
- see this post

- see this video of RadioShack’s new stores

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Azteca Mobile, an Overland Park-based wireless company that used the Sprint Nextel network, is out of business.

Sprint Nextel, after hemorrhaging subscribers throughout 2008, is predicting a 6 percent drop in wireless service revenue in 2009.

The carrier, which lost 1.3 million total customers in the fourth quarter of 2008, is also predicting that if subscriber losses continue at the same pace as last year, the company will see an additional 5 percent drop in wireless revenue. The forecasts were made in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission that Sprint made this past Friday.

Sprint lost 5.1 million subscribers in 2008, and wireless revenue fell by 3.1 billion, or 32 percent, as compared to 2007. When the carrier reported its fourth quarter earnings Feb. 19, revenue fell to $35.64 billion, down 11.2 percent from revenue of $40.15 billion in the year-ago quarter.   

The carrier said in January that it was laying off 8,000 employees in an effort to cut costs and save $1.2 billion annually. Sprint has also tried other efforts to retain customers, including offering wireless plans with perks for loyal customers and a new series of flat-rate, unlimited plans for Nextel Direct Connect customers. 

For more:
- see this article

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Verizon Wireless launched a low-cost push-to-talk phone on Monday. The company is trying to branch out further into the PTT market that has been dominated by Sprint Nextel.

The CDMA clamshell phone has EV-DO Rev. A support, dedicated push-to-talk and speakerphone support, a 1.3 megapixel camera and a microSD slot capable of holding up to 8GB. The phone will sell for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and with a two-year contract. It is available online now and will be available in stores March 9.

The phone’s pricing is significantly lower than Verizon’s other rugged push-to-talk devices, which range from $130 to $180 with a two-year contract and after rebates. Many of Sprint’s phones with Nextel Direct Connect fall under the $100 range.

For more:
- see this release
- see these photos

Related Articles:
Push-to-Talk Will Reach 8.5% Penetration in North American Mobile Market
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The price war that has begun between T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel will ultimately benefit users of Apple’s iPhone 3G if other carriers reduce prices on their data plans, an analyst has said.

Shaw Wu, a Kaufman Bros. analyst, said that Boost Mobile’s $50 per month unlimited voice and data plan and T-Mobile USA’s $50 unlimited voice and $25 per month unlimited data plan will boost sales of smartphones at all the carriers. In addition, he said that the price war will eventually force Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility, which is the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone, to drop prices on their unlimited data plans. This, in turn, will increase pressure on the other wireless companies to cut their rates. “Overall,” Wu said, “we view lower service plan prices as positive as it should help smartphone adoption maintain its healthy pace, even in this fragile economy.”

Wu is predicting Apple to sell 3 million iPhones in its fiscal second quarter, which ends in March.

For more:
- see this article
- Video: Boost Mobile UnWronged Ad

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Sprint Nextel has reported a fourth-quarter loss of US$1.62 billion. Revenue in the quarter also fell 14.4 percent to $8.4 billion as 1.3 million subscribers decided to leave the company.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S ) today reported fourth quarter and full-year 2008 financial results.

Sprint is pushing some buttons in the mobile phone pricing space by adding mobile broadband to its one-price Simply Everything plan. Of course, those who want mobile broadband, which consists of an air card for a laptop or computer, will have to kick in an additional $50.99 on top of the $99 monthly fee they’re already paying for unlimited voice, Sprint TV, SMS, GPS and other amenities.

Whether this is a good idea for consumers or just a way to add some more money to Sprint’s flagging coffers by pushing the perceived value of air cards depends on the way you jigger the money. Sprint figures the plan would save a consumer $599 over packages offered by AT&T and Verizon Wireless, and that should make it attractive for business customers who can’t be out of touch for a minute of their lives. Regular consumers don’t seem to be the plan’s targets.

Perhaps the plan’s main targets are the aforementioned Verizon and AT&T which are now facing yet another single price plan from Sprint that they can either match or blow off–at least to prospective customers–as irrelevant. From that perspective, Sprint is at least roiling the wireless waters.

For more:
- see this article

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An Intel executive said Wednesday that the company did not need to boost Clearwire financially because it has sufficient capital.  “They’ve got enough money to keep going for quite a while,” said Sean Maloney, Intel’s chief sales and marketing officer, in a conference call. “They’ve got a pretty fat piece of capital to go out and build the network.”

Clearwire has only launched in two markets–Baltimore and Portland, Ore.–and while it has been rumored that the company will launch mobile WiMAX operations in other cities across the United States, its buildout plans have so far been opaque. Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff has said publicly that the company needs an additional $2 billion in capital over the next few years to meet its aggressive buildout plans.

The company, which is 51 percent owned by Sprint Nextel, received $3.2 billion in capital from Intel, Google, Comcast and others and merged with Sprint’s WiMAX assets at the end of 2008. Intel and Google, among others, have taken large write-downs because of the investment.

Amid tight credit markets and the economic recession, getting additional capital for a young company could prove difficult. “Obviously, the economic environment globally is tough for anyone building out new stuff,” Maloney said, though he also said that “the current build-out rate for Clearwire is pretty fast.”

In December, Wolff conceded that if enough capital could not be raised, the company might have to scale back its plans. “There is a scenario in which we’d build a little more slowly and you’d never need any more capital,” Wolff said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “Or we could be more aggressive and we’d have to look to acquire more debt or equity in either late 2009 or early 2010.”  

Maloney also pointed out that WiMAX has seen success outside the United States. He said Japan will roll out WiMAX throughout the country by 2012 and also spoke about the technology’s availability in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia from high-speed Internet provider Scartel.

“We’re very aware that 80 percent of the technology market is overseas, and part of the purpose of this call is to remind people of that,” Maloney said.

For more:
- see this article

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