Independent Clearwire Blog

What Do We (Think We) Know About Sprint Nextel Plus Clearwire For 2.5 GHz Mobile WiMAX In Early 2008?

The mainstream media is abuzz this past week with rumors and "sources" stating that an arrangement between Sprint Nextel and Clearwire is "close" to fruition.

I've been saying that there will be such an arrangement - that it is inevitable, for months now.

To me, the "if" isn't in question. The only questions are the details about branding, customer ownership, ownership of spectrum and network, and when the arrangement will be consummated.

So, let's try to parse out some of those details from the mainstream media.

MSM datapoint: The "arrangment" will be embodied into a new company that will take control of both Sprint Nextel's and Clearwire's 2.5 GHz spectrum. (Source - Sprint, Clearwire Near WiMAX Deal)
SKS analysis: This is another opening feint. 2.5 GHz / Mobile WiMAX is a distraction for Sprint from what its managment, majority of personnel, and its investors view as its core business - wireless telephony and Broadband Internet Access over Wireless Telephony. Clearwire will come to dominate the new company. Also, neither company is actually going to "give up title" to itss respective spectrum - it's just too scary to contemplate "letting go" of spectrum assets.

The Inevitability Of Clearwire Plus Sprint Nextel 2.5 GHz Spectrum

(Background)

I've been predicting that a arrangement between Sprint Nextel and Clearwire that effectively puts Sprint Nextel's extensive 2.5 GHz spectrum under the control of Clearwire, which can then go forth and deploy a truly national Broadband Wireless Internet Access service using Mobile WiMAX technology... is, simply, inevitable. All that remains is to work out the details of the arrangement that will preserve some profit / equity / branding for Sprint Nextel and some face-saving rhetoric for Sprint Nextel's abysmal failure to capitalize on the incredible opportunity of combining Sprint's and Nextel's (conglomerated from Worldcom and a few other companies) 2.5 GHz spectrum and more-than-good-enough technology (Mobile WiMAX) finally being available.

My most direct prediction of this was made December 27, 2007 - (Prediction) Clearwire Takes Over Sprint Nextel 2.5 GHz Spectrum - I don't see any way in which this isn't inevitable. Clearwire has the vision, but they'll need a lot more money, and although it's a bit nuts, Clearwire apparently still isn't deploying Mobile WiMAX in new markets. Sprint Nextel will struggle just to rationalize its Nextel 800 MHz conversion and its Sprint 1.9 GHz CDMA networks and streamline their overall businesses - it simply can't afford, or significantly fund Mobile WiMAX on 2.5 GHz spectrum - even if the strident shareholders were supportive, which they're not.

Summarized neatly on January 22, 2008 -  Sprint Nextel reductions - you know there has to be a BWIA angle -  ... My prediction stands that Sprint Nextel will essentially spin out Xohm and its 2.5 GHz spectrum into a joint venture with Clearwire, or dump it outright. There's simply too much corporate inertia at Sprint Nextel - invested careers and tribal knowledge, technological infrastructure built for "the core competency of a telephone company is to generate billable events", and the external pressures of "the good old days of the cellular business" for a Mobile WiMAX service, with its radical distillation of "telecommunications" into "Stupid Network", for Xohm to gain any significant traction within Sprint. ...

Postings On Independent Clearwire Blog Now Caught Up

Apologies for the lack of postings here on the Independent Clearwire Blog these many months since I debuted it back in July.

It wasn't that I wasn't writing about Clearwire - I was; quite a bit, in fact... just not here. I couldn't break the habit of including Clearwire coverage in my main blog - Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News. There was also my protracted health issues in the latter half of 2007, which are fortunately behind me now.

Today I ported over all the stories and mentions of Clearwire (and Sprint Nextel, when relevant by association with Clearwire) from Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News to postings here on Independent Clearwire Blog.

Today I Use Only Clearwire Service For Home And Office

It's embarrassing to admit, but I hadn't been using my Clearwire connection very much since I signed up last year. It's a long and convoluted story about why I couldn't get my Clearwire modem connected into my household LAN, but now that's been corrected, and earlier today I "cut over" completely from pretty good Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) from a local Internet Service Provider (ISP) who I prefer not to name. (The wireline service is Verizon, but for any service issues, I deal with the ISP which was one of the primary attractions of working with them.)

A brief note - the Clearwire modem is just that - a modem. There's no router built into it. If there was, it would have been easy to set up many months ago. So if you're going to feed a household LAN from your Clearwire modem, you'll need a Network Address Translation (NAT) router.

When I have used it sporadically, the Clearwire modem has been totally plug and play. Unlike all the silliness that you have to go through with some DSL and cable systems about using their software to set up your system (which, again, if you're going to share out the connection, you have to "fake out" or later undo) and set a specific hostname, or set up Point To Point Protocol Over Ethernet (PPPOE), the Clearwire modem is, again, plug and play - just plug it in, and if your computer or router is set up for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), it'll just work.

Articles About Sprint Nextel And Clearwire Reviving Partnership Agreement

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 29, 2008 - Clearwire, Sprint talking again