Clearwire & Sprint Agree on WiMAX Roaming
Posted by samc on July 18th, 2007Clearwire and Sprint have agreed to provide Mobile WiMAX roaming between the two companys’ networks, reports the Wall Street Journal. Sprint also plans to provide dual-mode, CDMA-WiMAX services nationwide, using both its own and Clearwire’s WiMAX networks, reports RCR News.
Under the network build-out plan, Sprint will focus primarily on geographic areas covering approximately 185 million people, including 75 percent of the people located in the 50 largest markets, while Clearwire will focus on areas covering approximately 115 million people. Initially, the two companies expect to build out network coverage to approximately 100 million people by the end of 2008, with seamless roaming enabled between the deployed areas.
The agreement runs for 20 years, says the Seattle PI, with the ability for 10-year renewals. Sprint will build about 65 percent of the network, with the remainder falling to Clearwire. No cash will be exchanged between the two companies, though Clearwire will be able to enter commercial agreements to use Sprint Nextel’s towers, long distance, fiber networks, retail stores and other services.
Recently, Clearwire announced an agreement with satellite providers DirecTV and EchoStar that will allow the Kirkland Wash., start-up to bundle its high-speed wireless Web access with their TV programming.
Clearwire launched its first market in August 2004 and now offers service in 40 markets in more than 400 municipalities in 13 states across the U.S. Clearwire says it now has 258,000 customers (as of March 2007) in the United States and abroad. Clearwire’s frequencies now cover 205 million people in the U.S., according to their SEC filing. Clearwire also owns frequencies in Europe, covering 117 million people, and a recent German auction adds coverage of 82.5 million more.
“We will have 100 million covered by the end of 2008 and be in 35 markets,” said Sprint’s Barry West earlier this year. “We’re soft launching in Washington and Chicago in December and launching commercially in April of 2008.” The Sprint WiMAX mobile broadband network covers 85 percent of the households in the top 100 U.S. markets.
In related news, Sprint said it will use ZTE’s express and USB cards as well as ZTE’s home networking gear. Sprint also has equipment deals with Motorola, Nokia and Samsung.
Maravedis estimated the broadband wireless licensees (below), from the FCC’s ULS License Search web site. Clearwire bought 2.5 GHz spectrum owned by BellSouth for about $300 million. The spectrum is for markets located in the Southeast of the United States.
| Licensee | PSA | BTA | Potential Subs |
| BellSouth Wireless | 36 | 6 | 9,070,577 |
| Clearwire | 59 | 24 | 4,693,347 |
| Nextel/Sprint | 268 | 198 | 157,519,832 |
Protected Service Areas (PSA) is an exclusive license service granted to either a BRS or EBS licensee. Each PSA is comprised of a 35 Mile Radius surrounding the licensed transmitter site.
Basic Trading Areas (BTA) is geographic region defined by a group of counties that surround a city as formulated by Rand McNally. There are 493 BTAs in the U.S.
Senza-Fili Consulting projects 54 million WiMAX subscribers by 2012, with growth driven by emerging markets. By 2012, 61% of WiMAX subscribers will use the technology for mobile access. A third of them will also use WiMAX as a fixed-access technology.
source : dailywireless.org
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