The recent announcement by Sprint and Clearwire of their joint collaboration to build out their combined spectrum assets with a WiMAX network seems to have not caught on with very much buzz it seems. I am more optimistic than some about this. Certainly, there have been criticisms of Sprint of late, which has taken hits for the loss of customers and other setbacks in its bid to digest the Nextel merger.

However, in speaking to Sprint just yesterday I got the sense that the company has excitement about what this collaboration can do for them. They pointed out that WiMAX will offer a lot of opportunities for new revenue streams that did not exist before combined with significant cost savings over 3G deployments.

The details are that the two companies will trade some spectrum, pick out areas to deploy in and begin deployments independently, while offering customers a cross-roaming functionality AND develop a combined CDMA/WiMAX service that really manages the downside in case WiMAX doesn't pan out. The two companies plan to jointly cover 100 million customers by the end of next year, which is about what Sprint initially planned to deploy alone. So some detractors may pick at this because of that. For my part, I think there are more net positives for the industry and consumers that this is a minor issue. Deploying to anything close 100 million consumers is a gargantuan task. If involving Clearwire can get that done faster all the better. Ultimately Sprint intends to deploy to about 185 million consumers and Clearwire will pass about 115 million. Neither goal will be simple to accomplish.

I feel this will quiet restive investors on both sides for the companies and maybe allay fears of the expense of deploying a network of this scale. The cost factor seems to have a lot of both pundits and detractors who feel it will cost more. But I can't help but wonder if some analysts are looking at more traditional 3G cost models when parsing the information they are getting. In any event, I think this will answer a lot of Wall Street questions. I also think it will measurably speed the deployment of both networks especially as we move into 2008.

All well and good, but what does it mean for the industry? I see several positives. Getting deployments started will be a watershed (certainly Clearwire already is heavily engaged in this). But having Sprint actually begin deployments will be a bellwether moment. It ups the visibility for everybody. Also, I suspect that more institutional money, and investment money in general, will be drawn into the BWA marketplace as a whole. This type of rising tide could lift all boats. And make no mistake there is still tremendous opportunity for smaller carriers to make a mark in this space. To learn more about this and who some of those carriers are, stay tuned for my WiMAX report in September where we will reveal what we have found.

Ultimately, I view this collaboration as a positive step for the industry as a whole.

tim@thefinalmile.net   www.thefinalmile.net   www.wimaxglobalnews.com

    Hello readers. Thank you for your patience with me over the past month or so. I've blogged none at all. My only excuse is I have been super busy. Lots has been going on of late though. Let me catch you up. I have started maintaining the daily news and weekly newsletter for www.broadband-wireless.com so I hope you find that helpful and enjoyable. I am almost finished with a white paper I was asked to do for the WiMAX Forum titled: "Best Practices", VoIP Delivery over WiMAX Networks. I have interviewed a number of carriers extensively for this piece and learned a lot about VoIP delivery over broadband wireless. One big thing is that the planning process is crucial. Also, the wireless RF aspect is only one part of delivering carrier class voice. Carriers are succeeding however. Hopefully this white paper will be ready soon. And thanks to all of you who participated. I want to talk about some of the news items I think that are especially important. Perhaps first among this is the ongoing debate on Net Neutrality. The warring camps seem to be more entrenched each day. I suspect this topic will NOT be settled soon at all. However, if I had to hazard a guess I would estimate that the major carriers will win the argument. Their arguments have merits. But more importantly, their lobby is just too seasoned and good. I personally question if a tiered Internet is in the public interest. The money will have to come from somewhere, everyone will pass the costs on and ultimately I expect we will all pay more for access. The AWS auction in the (mostly) 1.7 GHz range, when it finally gets off the ground will be BIG for the US. We desperately need the spectrum. However, as usual, bigger companies will mostly warehouse the bands and especially rural markets will see little improvements for years. One firm, M2ZNetworks has proposed the FCC allow it use of 2155 to 2175 MHz without upfront cost in exchange for its building a nationwide broadband network at 384K free to all. It will field a premium network and pay 5 percent of its revenues back to the government as well. John Muleta, the former FCC Wireless Bureau Chief is the CEO and its Chairman is Milo Medin, who founded @Home networks. It is a laudable idea and could actually deliver nationwide free wireless however, the build out requirements of 33 percent in three years and 66 percent in five years and 95 percent in ten years means this company too will have to start in metropolitan area first as well to succeed. Very interesting play. I think it has a decent chance. Clearwire is going public in a $400 million IPO. Most interestingly it disclosed that it had 88,000 customers in its filing per an article I read. That is big news for the industry. Nokia dropping its CDMA joint venture with Sanyo is interesting, particularly as I am hearing anecdotally from friends that it is tougher to get CDMA handsets down in price. Qualcomm quickly launched damage control. But I think this underscores why it has moved strongly into OFDM products of late. The future will happen no matter what. And I don't think Qualcomm plans to be left behind. WiMAX is moving along steadily and 802.16e precursor products are starting to appear. Intel should soon have chipsets for laptops on the market. There is lots more, too much for one blog. I will try much harder to blog a little more steadily on things I find interesting and worthy of comment. Thanks for eading my blog.   Tim Sanders tim@thefinalmile.net   www.thefinalmile.net   www.wimaxglobalnews.com  

    I am getting closer and closer to buying one of these little phones. A piece in CNET describes the new Treo 700p model from Palm that supports the faster EV-DO networks. This new model supports Bluetooth natively. If they will just finally add Wi-Fi capability one of these little jewels will be MINE. I realize power is an issue and added power may be needed to supplement the on-board batteries. But I wouldn't mind buying a piggyback cell. Very close. Tim Sanders tim@thefinalmile.net  www.thefinalmile.net  www.wimaxglobalnews.com

    Another good piece in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) about the just-announced partnership with Nokia and Google to deliver Google's voice product over Nokia's tablets device for WiFi hotspots. This device apparently has no cellular capability as yet. I am increasingly coming to believe that VoIP will be the killer application that will drive broadband to its next level. It seems like such a simple thing. But the proliferation of IP calling platforms is getting almost dizzying. AOL is getting in the game. I got an e-mail just this morning from Skype announcing free outbound calling in the US and Canada through the end of the year. I realize their cost factors must be pretty low, but wow. This will drive broadband adoption like nothing else I believe. Increasingly you need broadband just to function in our society. Tim Sanders tim@thefinalmile.net  www.thefinalmile.net  www.wimaxglobalnews.com

    Alltel and Sprint announced their intentions to ink a 10-Year two-way roaming agreement between the two parties. The agreement would be nationwide and include both voice and data services. The announcement didn't say whether or not the companies would cross-market services that don't duplicate in some markets. Still, that might be a natural extention. Clearly Sprint at least is focused on blunting Verizon wherever it can. Alltell already has voice roaming agreements with both Verizon and Cingular, but apparently NOT data agreements. So that is interesting. What is the WiMax angle? Data of course. There is a lot of upheaval in telecom these days. Traditional telcos, cellular carriers, cablecos and broadband wireless firms are all searching for new markets, alliances, products and customer bases. Ultimately this is good for the consumer I believe. And while I doubt they think so, probably for the carriers too. Tim Sanders tim@thefinalmile.net  www.thefinalmile.net  www.wimaxglobalnews.com