Sprint sees WiMAX as path back into fixed broadband

Once the market reaches that point, Sprint will have to re-evaluate the basic business model in which it sells wireless service. The 3G/4G data card service it offers today costs $80 a month, about $20 more a month than its 3G mobile broadband service. If Sprint is supporting multiple devices, each consuming variable amounts of data ranging from minute to massive, it cannot charge $80 a month for each connection, Rowley acknowledged. But Sprint can explore alternative models, which could allow customers to buy an all-encompassing data plan or pay incremental monthly fees for each new device they connect.

“What 4G does for us and why we selected WiMAX are the business models,” Rowley said. “We’re able to open up and do new business models we haven’t done in the past. We’re talking about multiple device plans and buckets of bits. That’s a whole new opportunity for us.”

RESOLVING PROBLEMS IN THE BACKEND

Before Sprint can implement any of this, though, it has to solve its backend connection problems with Clearwire. Because Sprint and Clearwire built their initial WiMAX networks independently, they deployed separate authentication authorization accounting (AAA) platforms that did not integrate with one another when the companies merged their WiMAX assets late last year. That means that Clearwire’s Portland network not only can’t communicate with Sprint’s provisioning and billing platforms but also doesn’t recognize Baltimore customers and vice versa. That prevents Clearwire from offering roaming between the two networks and presumably is one of the reasons it has held back launching the already-deployed networks in Chicago and Washington, D.C., both of which are hooked into Sprint’s Bridgewater Systems-built AAA platform.

Rowley said the issue is a relatively minor one that should be resolved by the end of the first quarter or the beginning of the second quarter. But once the issue is resolved, Sprint will be able to offer its branded 4G service not only in Portland but also in any other new Clearwire market, regardless of whether it was initially built under the Sprint or Clearwire banner.

Further Reading:

Telephony’s 4G Race Topic Page

The World According to Barry

Intel’s Wireless Dreams

Verizon accelerating LTE, putting further pressure on Clearwire, WiMAX

The Greening of Xohm

Sprint details Xohm location-based services plans, partners