Sprint Throws Money At WiMax $51 million investment this quarter alone Sprint's quarterly earnings took a major plunge as the company prepares to build a nationwide WiMax broadband network that will see commercial launch in 2008. The company earned $19 million during the quarter, compared to $370 million earned the same period a year ago. Sprint Nextel CEO Gary Forsee today called the slow rollout of their cable joint venture Pivot service a "disappointment."The company added 400,000 wireless subscribers during a quarter that saw AT&T and Verizon Wireless add 1.5 million and 1.6 million new subscribers, respectively. Sprint's attentions are focused on WiMax as a way to battle AT&T and Verizon, with the company investing $51 million on the network this quarter. Sprint WiMax will launch first in Chicago and DC in early 2008, offering 2-4Mbps for an estimated $55, company executives guessed recently. Execs have made some vague promises that they won't limit your content options with the walled gardens and other restrictions you see with most U.S. 3G services.
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 | | I'll believe it when I see it This is a company that hasn't been able to execute successfully on ANYTHING. We'll see, but I sure wouldn't buy any stock. | |
|  |  rawgerzThe hell was that?Premium
join:2004-10-03
Grove City, PA
1 edit | Re: I'll believe it when I see it "Non line of sight"
Righttt.. Maybe if Wimax used 900Mhz and below 
If I may quote LLigetfa 
»Re: Real world latency in Wimax Networks
said by LLigetfa:Wimax is like teenage sex. Everyone talks about doing it. Many think everyone but them is doing it and it will be great when they finally do it. In fact very few people are doing it and those that are, aren't doing it very well. ;) | |
| | | | | Re: I'll believe it when I see it said by rawgerz:"Non line of sight" Righttt.. Maybe if Wimax used 900Mhz and below If I may quote LLigetfa »Re: Real world latency in Wimax Networkssaid by LLigetfa:Wimax is like teenage sex. Everyone talks about doing it. Many think everyone but them is doing it and it will be great when they finally do it. In fact very few people are doing it and those that are, aren't doing it very well. ;) I was involved in original trials - NLOS works great, even at WiMAX freqs. Oh, BTW - you should see it perform in a mobile environment !!! | |
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| | | said by BillRoland:This is a company that hasn't been able to execute successfully on ANYTHING. Sprint does very well in data and was very successful in the EVDO rollout. They are leading in EVDO, just see evdoforums.co. Sprint is preferred for data cards over Verizon and ATT.
Sprint's problem is losing Nextel users, not CDMA. And their support sucks. But I have ATT too and have more coverage/call issues than with Sprint. Sprint's improved a huge amount ever since adding CDMA to thousands of Nextel sites. At least something good came out of Nextel.
On dslreports reviews, Sprint EVDO get an 84% approval while Verizon only gets 74% approval.
»User reviews - Verizon BroadbandAccess
»User reviews - Sprint Mobile Broadband
If they can succeed in EVDO, they should do fine with WiMAX. | |
| | |  en102Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | Re: I'll believe it when I see it My Sprint iDEN still doesn't work all that well (new 7100i, and new site 1 block from my house - people still claim its breaking up).
Sprint is still adding Boost customers... so that's still a good thing, I guess. | |
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At a 2% churn rate, how many iDEN customers do you have to lose to only post 16,000 retail net adds? Something tells me that their CDMA side wasn't so hot either this quarter.
As always, Boost and their MVNO's were their only saviors this quarter.
Sprint has terrible customer service and boring devices. They're giving their service practically away for free through SERO but not getting traction. I'm not convinced with this type of market popularity that they'll gain many more customers through Wimax.
Sprint is most popular among the hardcore mobile techies because they don't limit access. Reality is that they can't afford to right now. Sprint also appeals to the budget crowd through SERO. I think they are trying to compete and retain loyalty by price undercutting. | |
| | | | Reviews:
 ·Cox HSI
| Re: I'll believe it when I see it said by airtouch25:At a 2% churn rate, how many iDEN customers do you have to lose to only post 16,000 retail net adds? Something tells me that their CDMA side wasn't so hot either this quarter. As always, Boost and their MVNO's were their only saviors this quarter. Sprint has terrible customer service and boring devices. They're giving their service practically away for free through SERO but not getting traction. I'm not convinced with this type of market popularity that they'll gain many more customers through Wimax. Sprint is most popular among the hardcore mobile techies because they don't limit access. Reality is that they can't afford to right now. Sprint also appeals to the budget crowd through SERO. I think they are trying to compete and retain loyalty by price undercutting. Well said. And 66% of those iDEN losses are leaving the company ENTIRELY. That's a TERRIBLE number. And frankly, I can relate, being a 6 year NEXTEL customer, its gone steadily down hill. And I don't want to hear about how much Sprint has done to improve the iDEN network. NEXTEL added 2,400 sites in 2004, Sprint has added 1,000 in 2006 and 2007. It sounds fantastic until you have something to compare it to.
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"Don't steal. The government hates competition."
Fred Thompson For President 2008 »www.imwithfred.com | |
| | | | |  kapilThe Kapil
join:2000-04-26
Chicago, IL | Re: I'll believe it when I see it iDEN is old. DirectConnect is a niche offering. Those that need it, will always stick by it because there is no alternative (regardless of what the other carriers with their miserable PTT offerings tell you).
Nextel coverage is lacking...it always has. Outside of those who NEED DC, and the "where you at?" crowd, no one really needs it...and those people are finally realizing that.
Sadly, Sprint's non DC offering, their CDMA service, is not as compelling compared to T-Mobile, which is cheaper, ATT, which has nicer handsets and VZW which supposedly has a better network.
The truth is, regardless of which big-4 carrier owns you, there is very little difference in your service. T-Mo and AT&T roam on to each other's network freely...the same for Sprint and VZW.
So, all those who claim that they never had a dropped call with VZW but do with Sprint, are full of crap, because the network coverage map for VZW and Sprint is identical when you include roaming. And almost all plans these days include roaming at no charge. | |
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| | | | Don't ever compare Verizon to Sprint! Sprint is garbage!
Can you say dropped calls? LOL
Verizon Wireless never drops calls..Can you hear me now? | |
| | |  DoRight
join:2007-07-20
East Petersburg, PA | Try living in a Shentel Market(Sprint Affiliate)!! 1x service.. Dialup makes Sprint Aircard look like a turtle.. It's a shame their losing Nextel customers so much.. Nextel rocks here in Harrisburg,PA.. Sprint blows.. | |
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| | | Right, I guess being the best EVDO provider in the country is regarded as a failure. | |
| | kapilThe Kapil
join:2000-04-26
Chicago, IL | said by BillRoland:This is a company that hasn't been able to execute successfully on ANYTHING Actually, quite to the contrary, Sprint has a very strong history of technical innovation and being a pioneer with new technology...the thing is, as reflected by your comment, they don't get any respect for it.
I suspect it's mostly due to their failure to follow through and make it a successful commercial venture...and especially their failure to keep customers happy by providing decent customer support.
But, strictly from a technical standpoint, Sprint is a cut above the rest.
They were the first to build out a nationwide "PCS" network. I guess PrimeCo was there before them or about the same time but it was more regional.
Sprint was also one of the first ILECs to market DSL. Remember Sprint ION?....a total commercial failure due to proper follow-through, but a technically superb product and well ahead of its time.
Their business products portfolio has some very unique offerings and a very competitive price.
As others have mentioned, Sprint's EvDO rollout has been a success and Rev A will be just as much a resounding success.
Sprint Broadband Direct? ...again first to market with a product like that and well ahead of its time.
While this was before Sprint bought them, Nextel also had the pre-wimax "Nextel Broadband" service that it was trying in NC.
I'm not a Sprint customer, employee or stockholder...but as a techie, it's quite frustrating to see them fail commercially despite clearly superior products.
I really hope that one of these days they get their act together...it's the last hope for real competition in the ILEC/MSO duopoly we've ended up with. | |
| | | Reviews:
·Cox HSI
| Re: I'll believe it when I see it Fair enough, but if you can't be successful commercially, then what's the point?
As someone who lives in an Embarq (formerly Sprint's landline division) area, I can tell you that they're a decade behind everyone else. Its always been that way. They may be great inventors, but they have never been able to execute on anything. | |
| | | | kapilThe Kapil
join:2000-04-26
Chicago, IL | Re: I'll believe it when I see it I hear ya'. But they are moving in the right direction. Slowly, but at least it's the right direction.
As I mentioned, their product portfolio is #1 by any measure. They recently divorced some blood-sucking customers. They have their WirelessBuzz website where customers and employees provide candid feedback and openly critique things that need it.
They are the most researched and blogged wireless carrier...numbers for their executive escalations people, retentions etc. are all easily Googled.
They recently provided a direct number for consumerist.com readers to contact their executive escalations team. What carrier does that? If Verizon's or AT&T's internal phone book got published online, you can be sure that a DMCA take-down notice would follow shortly....not so with Sprint...they actually embraced it...provided corrections to the posted list and also the aforementioned direct line to exec escalations.
Their "SERO" offer, the dealmaking that goes on once you get to the retention people. The rapid pace, for a CDMA carrier, with which they add "cool" handsets. They're trying. It's a large ship and it is going to take a while to turn around.
Don't get me wrong...as a former Sprint customer, I remember what a total misery their customer "service" is....but we must give credit where it's due. Sprint's trying to do the right thing...and that can't be said for other carriers out there. | |
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How do you measure REV A success? By its popularity with the SERO junkies or by the quarterly subscribers that sign up for it every quarter?
REV A is a decent technology, but its success depends on those who can market it and sell it well. Sprint isn't doing that right now. It's easy to get caught up in the world of internet forums that you and I browse through daily and imagine that everyone and their mother has signed up for a Sprint data plan and that everyone is getting 2.4 Mbps download speeds.
Verizon is more expensive and more restrictive with their data products and services. But no matter how many Sprint retail store employees bash their TOS, prices or speeds on forums like this, they're still kicking Sprint's butt in quarterly additions.
Logic doesn't make sense here, or does it?
Maybe Sprint should get out of the phone business and simply be a national wireless ISP? They could lease their network to other providers and allow resellers to launch services through them or offer bundled packages.
Just a thought. | |
| | | | kapilThe Kapil
join:2000-04-26
Chicago, IL | Re: I'll believe it when I see it As I said before, the business end of things has been Sprint's Achilles' heel for some time. It's getting better but it will take a while to turn around an entire company. On the technical front, however, VZW doesn't compare to Sprint.
As far as the idea of Sprint becoming an ISP, in the original meaning of the word...you may not be that far off. Eventually the phone companies that remain stuck in the circuit switched world will die off. The future belongs to packet switched voice and dumb-pipe data providers...and Sprint's got a leg up there.
It is my belief that voice will simply become an application that runs over a provider's data network, much like "fixed" VoIP today....Sprint, Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless et al will just provide the pipe...and someone else will provide the content, whether that be streaming video, voice, whatever. | |
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| | 375,000 of those new customers were probably Sero sign up's hence the profit drop. | |
| | kapilThe Kapil
join:2000-04-26
Chicago, IL | Re: 375,000 If SERO customers weren't profitable, Sprint would have killed the program by now.
As with any telecom service provider, the costs are fixed. Once the network is built, and the capital costs incurred, the ongoing expense for maintenance etc. is the same whether you have 1 customer of 1 million.
So, SERO essentially attracts consumers who are savvy enough to research better offers online...these people would otherwise go to other carriers and Sprint would never see their money.
And since SERO is one hell of a deal, most SERO customers realize that and are very loyal customers...and that only results in a positive "buzz" about the company.
So, while they may not be as profitable as other customers, Sprint is keeping customers away from competition, gettinng additional revenue, and generating free publicity. Other carriers are fools for not follwing suit! | |
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wierdo
join:2001-02-16
Tulsa, OK | What Walled Garden? AFAIK, neither none of the big carriers actually (technically, TOS is a different matter) limit what you can do with their 3G service, beyond the limitations imposed by using NAT.
Only T-Mobile does something like that on their absolute cheapest EDGE plan, and even then you can get around it.
The others allow you essentially unfettered network access, subject only to limitations imposed by contract, not by actual inability to use the service for whatever you desire.
Also, the TOS enforcement (at least with AT&T) is somewhere between extremely lax and non existent. They're more concerned with raw bandwidth usage than what exactly you do with the service. | |
| | | | Re: What Walled Garden? Wimax=nextel lol | |
| | | | said by wierdo:AFAIK, neither none of the big carriers actually (technically, TOS is a different matter) limit what you can do with their 3G service, beyond the limitations imposed by using NAT. Only T-Mobile does something like that on their absolute cheapest EDGE plan, and even then you can get around it. The others allow you essentially unfettered network access, subject only to limitations imposed by contract, not by actual inability to use the service for whatever you desire. Also, the TOS enforcement (at least with AT&T) is somewhere between extremely lax and non existent. They're more concerned with raw bandwidth usage than what exactly you do with the service. From AT&T's website:
Prohibited and Permissible Uses: Data Service sessions may be conducted only for the following purposes: (i) Internet browsing; (ii) email; and (iii) corporate intranet access (including access to corporate email, customer relationship management, sales force automation, and field service automation applications). PROHIBITED USES INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO, USING SERVICES: (I) WITH SERVER DEVICES OR WITH HOST COMPUTER APPLICATIONS, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WEB CAMERA POSTS OR BROADCASTS, CONTINUOUS JPEG FILE TRANSFERS, AUTOMATIC DATA FEEDS, TELEMETRY APPLICATIONS, PEER-TO-PEER (P2P) FILE SHARING, AUTOMATED FUNCTIONS OR ANY OTHER MACHINE-TO-MACHINE APPLICATIONS; (II) AS SUBSTITUTE OR BACKUP FOR PRIVATE LINES OR DEDICATED DATA CONNECTIONS; (III) FOR VOICE OVER IP; (IV) IN CONJUNCTION WITH WWAN OR OTHER APPLICATIONS OR DEVICES WHICH AGGREGATE USAGE FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES PRIOR TO TRANSMISSION; (V) USING THE SERVICES FOR ANY ACTIVITY THAT ADVERSELY AFFECTS THE ABILITY OF OTHER PEOPLE OR SYSTEMS TO USE EITHER THE SERVICES OR OTHER PARTIES' INTERNET-BASED RESOURCES INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION OF NETWORK OR SYSTEM RESOURCES (WHETHER INTENTIONAL OR UNINTENTIONAL) AND "DENIAL OF SERVICE" (DOS) ATTACKS AGAINST ANOTHER NETWORK HOST OR INDIVIDUAL USER; OR (VI) INTERFERENCE WITH OR DISRUPTION OF OTHER NETWORK USERS, NETWORK SERVICES OR NETWORK EQUIPMENT. EXCEPT FOR CONTENT FORMATTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH AT&T'S WIRELESS CONTENT STANDARDS, UNLIMITED PLANS CANNOT BE USED FOR UPLOADING, DOWNLOADING OR STREAMING OF VIDEO CONTENT (E.G. MOVIES, TV), MUSIC OR GAMES. FURTHERMORE, UNLIMITED PLANS (EXCEPT FOR DATACONNECT AND BLACKBERRY TETHERED) CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY APPLICATIONS THAT TETHER THE DEVICE (THROUGH USE OF, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, CONNECTION KITS, OTHER PHONE/PDA-TO-COMPUTER ACCESSORIES, BLUETOOTH® OR ANY OTHER WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY) TO LAPTOPS, PCS, OR OTHER EQUIPMENT FOR ANY PURPOSE. Service is not intended to provide full-time connections, and the Service may be discontinued after a significant period of inactivity or after sessions of excessive usage. AT&T reserves the right to (i) limit throughput or amount of data transferred, deny Service and/or terminate Service, without notice, to anyone it believes is using the Service in any manner prohibited above or whose usage adversely impacts its wireless network or service levels or hinders access to its wireless network and (ii) protect its wireless network from harm, which may impact legitimate data flows. You may not send solicitations to AT&T's wireless subscribers without their consent. You may not use the Services other than as intended by AT&T and applicable law. Plans are for individual, non-commercial use only and are not for resale. | |
| | | wierdo
join:2001-02-16
Tulsa, OK | Re: What Walled Garden? Apparently you don't read very well.
I specifically stated that the TOS says there are limitations. They are not enforced in practice, however. They never have been, at least on AT&T. | |
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kaila
join:2000-10-11
Lincolnshire, IL | Bring it on Sprint..... I'm not expecting any miracles from Sprint, but if they are able to provide adequate coverages, the multi-device/roaming capabilities will be a great feature. | |
| | | Adding customers Just out of curiosity, there's a difference of about 1.1M new subscribers between Sprint and AT&T; how many new signups did AT&T actually get because of the iPhone?
I'd also like to say that Sprint's EVDO rollout is awesome. They've brought real broadband to places that didn't have it, and their TOS put Verizon to shame.
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Sprint Mobile Broadband PX-500 | Windows XP MCE SP2 | Mobile AMD Athlon 64 4000+ | 1.5GB RAM | ATI Mobile Radeon X600 128MB | 120GB HDD | |
|  Michieru2zzz zzz zzzPremium
join:2005-01-28
Miami, FL | For the CEO and all head members at Sprint-Nextel Good luck Sprint-Nextel, I have confidence in you.
Best Wishes
-Michieru
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Duct tape, saving lives since 1942. | |
|  intellerSociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK
 ·Cingular Wireless
| the good news...I hear less chirping The best news is I hear less chirping stupid Nextel phones than before, so for that, I thank you sprint. Keep driving customers away from your shitty technology so I never have to hear it again.
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"WHEN THE LAUGH TRACK STARTS THEN THE FUN STARTS!" | |
| DSLrgmPremium,MVM
join:2002-08-22
Oak Park, MI | Chicago for a start makes sense A friend of mine has Sprint's pre-WiMax broadband.
Dish antenna on their roof with line-of-site to the Sears tower. Though it was down when I was there a couple weeks ago, they were thinking a bird knocked out the dish...
So Sprint is already in the Internet fix-site wireless broadband business and has been for years. This a nature migration to standards-base technology (of those 802.16 meetings were so much fun as we discussed security. At first all they wanted to do was DOCSIS without wires and use DOCSIS DES security  ). | |
| | | Ya sure For companies nation wide mean, any CITY in the nationg. Rurel area, they don't even think about. | |
| | Reviews:
 ·Embarq Now Centu..
| Re: Ya sure Not sure if I understand your broken english, but I live in a VERY rural area, and am connected via Sprint Mobile Broadband. In fact, a very large rural area surrounding me (from about Chicago down to Indy along I-65) has EVDO RevA coverage from Sprint. | |
| | | | | Re: Ya sure Ofcouse you have it up there. You are near Chicago, in Extreme Southern IL the biggest pop. is across the river in Missouri, 15 miles away & that is only 45-50k. | |
| | | | | | Re: Ya sure I'm 90 miles from Chicago. | |
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| intellerSociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK | you've got that right. anything outside those enclaves are vast wilderness to them that they have to speed between to get to the next sign of civilization. | |
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