Sprint Focusing on LTE, Winds Down WiMAX 4G Smartphones
Sprint Nextel won’t introduce any new WiMAX 4G smartphones this year as it shifts focus to LTE, the deployment of which will ramp up quickly after the initial six markets launch mid-year, Development Director Ryan Sullivan told us following a New York news conference for HTC’s new Evo 4G LTE model. Sprint’s Network Vision 4G LTE network, expected to be nationwide with 38,000 cell sites by late 2013, will debut in Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Kansas City, Mo. In each of the markets, Sprint will install new multi-mode base stations supplied by Alcatel, Harris and Samsung. Field testing is being conducted in the first six markets consisting of internal Sprint trials and those with third-party companies, Sullivan said. The first multi-mode base station went on line in December.
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"What you will see is that once we get to the point where we have achieved our first six, you will see rolling announcements about our progress,” Sullivan said. “It will ramp quickly and you will see that rate go up. The field testing will be a little more cumbersome in these first six markets, but once we have the proven formula then we will start expanding them out a lot faster."
A rapid LTE deployment will be key for Sprint as it seeks to close the technology gap with Verizon Wireless and AT&T, which have already widely introduced the technology. Sprint will use its 1900 MHZ spectrum for LTE as it gradually moves CDMA voice service to 800 MHZ that’s home to the iDEN network Sprint inherited in buying Nextel in 2006. Sprint is converting the 3 million-4 million iDEN customers -- mostly large corporate accounts -- to its service and plans to shut down 9,600 towers from the Nextel platform by the end of year, company officials have said. Sprint also will seek to draw on the 7 million subscribers that have purchased a 4G WiMAX product since the carrier introduced them in June 2010, they have said.
The first six markets were chosen based on “where we could make the most impact for the service and where are the areas we need to prioritize the market build out,” Sullivan said. “Building out New York” for LTE is going to be a “longer-term endeavor” than building out Baltimore based largely on the number cell sites, permits required and locations, he said.
Sprint’s Network Vision will cover 176 million points of presence (POPs) with 4G, including 123 million LTE and 120 million WiMAX POPs and 67 million POPs that overlap. Clearwire, which provided Sprint’s 4G WiMAX network that’s been deployed in 77 markets, will overlay its system for LTE, having initially tested the concept in Phoenix. Clearwire is targeting having the LTE overlay complete at 5,000 LTE sites by June 2013 with a “slightly longer-term objective” of having 8,000, Clearwire CEO Erik Prusch told analysts in a conference call earlier this year. The initial work on the LTE overlay was to begin in Q1. Clearwire has 16,000 sites for its WiMAX network. Sprint invested $1.9 billion in December in Clearwire, which has 1.3 million subscribers to its WiMAX service.
"To some extent we'll still have WiMAX for years to come because we are still selling WiMAX products today and it will take a while for those products to phase out of our network,” Sullivan said. “You won’t see us launch any additional WiMAX products, so we will start phasing out after this year as we go to LTE. It will be more of an attrition type thing where as those devices roll off WiMAX, we'll shut them down."
As it introduces the Evo 4G LTE, HTC is “tightening” the number of products it carries this year in sharpening its focus around LTE, HTC President Jason MacKenzie said. While HTC fielded tablets, including the Flyer, last year along with the Evo 3D smartphone that featured a 3D display, the company will bring greater attention to the design of its “Hero” models that feature a customized Android operating system and greater attention to video and audio, the latter including Beats Electronics technology. Three models of Beats By Dr. Dre headphones and earbuds will be merchandised alongside the Evo 4G LTE in Sprint stores, Sullivan said.