Sprint’s WiMAX unit may merge with Clearwire or spinoff the unit as a stand alone company, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Acting CEO Paul Saleh, who also is the company’s chief financial officer, Sprint remains committed to WiMax, despite protests from some on Wall Street that the $5 billion project will be a costly distraction from the carrier’s core business. WiMax will allow customers to get wireless Internet connections through laptops and cellphones at speeds on par with landline speeds.
In July, Sprint struck a tentative agreement with Clearwire, a start-up founded by wireless pioneer Craig McCaw, to jointly build a nationwide WiMax network, beginning with a rollout that would reach 100 million U.S. consumers by the end of next year. But the two parties never signed a definitive agreement.
Now, Sprint’s board is considering a number of options, including spinning off its WiMax unit and merging it with Mr. McCaw’s company, with the resulting entity potentially going public. Other options for Sprint include trying to attract a strategic investor for its WiMax unit, acquiring Clearwire outright or formalizing the deal struck in July. Many of these options were considered in the companies’ initial talks earlier this year. A Clearwire spokesman declined to comment on the current discussions.
While WiMax will be a major factor in how well Sprint competes in the future, much of Mr. Saleh’s attention is on fixing Sprint’s core cellphone business. Sprint posted poor third-quarter results yesterday, including a net loss of 60,000 customers and a 77% drop in net income from the year-ago period. Mr. Saleh said his immediate goal is to improve customer service, which has suffered in recent months and contributed to high subscriber turnover.
What’s next? Maybe Sprint will buy T-Mobile’s AWS spectrum for $5 Billion and provide UMB service from Qualcomm.
Yeah. That’s the ticket.
Related WiMAX articles on DailyWireless include; Sprint Forces Forsee Out, WiMAX Demoed on Chicago River, Verizon Jumping to LTE?, Civil War in 4G, Battle for “4G”, T-Mobile’s AWS spectrum, 3G Congress Talks Back, 3GSM World Congress, Mobile WiMAX PlugFest, Clearwire Gets Carded, Qualcomm Talks Up Rev. B & C, Jacobs: WiMAX is Crap, Sprint’s Barry West and Sprint’s WiMAX Cities.
