clearwire

There's no doubt that Clearwire faces a cash crunch among many other challenges as it tries to build its nationwide 4G WiMax network. But will the company be able to weather the storm and stay afloat?

That's the big question that investors and Clearwire's customers are asking as the company continues to look for more funding to support its network expansion and deal with growing competition. In November, Clearwire said it might not have enough cash to keep its network running through the middle of 2011. Since then it's taken on more debt and settled a … Read more

Clearwire has signed a deal with wireless equipment supplier Ericsson to manage its 4G WiMax network in an effort to save on operating costs.

Today, the company announced the new seven-year deal, which entails Ericsson managing Clearwire's day-to-day network operations. As part of the deal, about 700 Clearwire employees will become Ericsson employees in the middle of 2011. Ericsson will be responsible for all the network engineering, operations, and maintenance of the network. But Clearwire will retain control of strategy decisions for the future of the network.

Ericsson, which sells the equipment used to power wireless networks around the … Read more

Sprint Nextel may be considering a hosting deal that could help it and its close partner Clearwire deploy a 4G LTE network to compete with rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T.

Earlier this week, the blog Fierce Wireless reported that Sprint's CEO Dan Hesse said at a JP Morgan conference in Boston that Sprint may consider striking hosting deals that would allow other wireless providers to use some of Sprint's excess network capacity. In exchange, Sprint would get access to additional spectrum.

"This could be a source of additional spectrum or capacity," the blog quoted Hesse as saying. "But we haven't made any decisions on hosting."

The blog went on to report that Hesse acknowledged that Sprint has been talking to Clearwire about a network hosting deal.

"It also has been reported that there are some discussions between Clearwire and Sprint about the potential of Sprint hosting some spectrum. That's a potential that could happen. It's more economical for Clearwire to host it vs. building a separate network," Hesse was quoted as saying.

Sprint may be talking to other companies about hosting services and sharing spectrum. The Wall Street Journal and blog BroadbandReports have also reported recently that Sprint has been talking to LightSquared, which is building a nationwide LTE network, about a hosting arrangement as well. … Read more

Clearwire, Comcast, and Sprint have jointly announced an expansion of the Clearwire 4G network today. The network now includes much of the greater Bay Area. The communities are San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Sunnyvale, San Ramon, Fremont, San Leandro, Newark, Campbell, Daly City, Pleasanton, Danville, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Hayward, Walnut Creek, Mountain View, Cupertino, Milpitas, Pleasant Hill, Santa Clara, and San Bruno. The Bay Area 4G coverage is said to cover around 4.4 million people.

Clearly, this is an advantage for those who want to use 4G devices from the aforementioned carriers. Sprint's 4G phones include the … Read more

Clearwire's revenue grew as it added loads of new subscribers in the first quarter of 2011. But the wireless company's losses widened as it spent more to grow its business.

Clearwire, which is building a nationwide 4G wireless network, today reported losses of $227 million, or 93 cents a share in the first quarter, compared with a loss of $94 million, or 47 cents a share, during the first quarter of 2010.

But revenue more than doubled to $242 million as the company added a record 1.8 million subscribers during the quarter. It now serves a total … Read more

Sprint Nextel and Clearwire have settled their dispute over wholesale pricing, the companies announced today. Sprint uses the nationwide Clearwire network for its 4G WiMax wireless broadband service.

Under the new deal Clearwire will receive at least $1 billion from Sprint in 2011 and 2012. The minimum 4G usage commitment for this year is $300 million and $550 million next year. Sprint will pay $175 million in pre-payment for the service that will be used later this year and beyond.

The companies also worked out an agreement for devices that use both Sprint's 3G network and Clearwire's 4G … Read more

Clearwire, which is building a nationwide WiMax network in the U.S., announced today that John Stanton will serve as interim CEO, replacing William Morrow, who resigned from the position and the company's board of directors.

Stanton is currently Clearwire's chairman of the board. Stanton is well-known in the wireless world having served as CEO of Western Wireless, which was acquired by Alltel in 2005 and is now part of Verizon Wireless. And he worked at VoiceStream Wireless, which was sold to Deutsche Telekom to form T-Mobile USA.

In addition to Morrow, Chief Commercial Officer Mike Sievert and … Read more

Sprint Nextel's fourth quarter highlighted a company that has rebounded nicely, with almost 1.1 million net subscriber additions, including prepaid and postpaid customers. However, Sprint could have to pony up some cash to support Clearwire, the partner that runs the carrier's WiMax network.

First, the highlights. Sprint added 58,000 postpaid subscribers, 519,000 net subscribers to its brand and prepaid subscribers of 646,000 to the Virgin Mobile, Assurance Wireless, and Boost Mobile brands. Overall, Sprint added almost 1.1 million wireless subscribers--the most additions since the first and second quarters of 2006.

Postpaid churn also … Read more

Speed is only one way to measure an Internet service provider, said Clearwire, the wireless network that appeared to get slammed last week by a Netflix report on which ISPs were best at delivering streaming video the best.

Last Thursday, Netflix published data on how well various ISPs delivered the company's streaming video. Out of 16 companies, Clearwire came in last. The wireless carrier responded to Netflix's data in a blog post on Friday.

While Clearwire said it was "jazzed" about being the only wireless carrier on the list, the company suggested that Netflix omitted important … Read more