Sprint to pay Clearwire $1 billion in 4G fees through 2012

By on Apr 19, 2011 at 11:53 AM
mobile April 19, 2011

Sprint, which owns the majority stake of Clearwire, has agreed to pay the company at least $1 billion through 2012 for fees associated with the use of its 4G WiMAX network. Sprint and Clearwire entered arbitration late last year after Sprint argued that it shouldn’t have to pay a fee for 4G handsets that exist where Clearwire’s 4G WiMAX network isn’t available. Sprint charges its customers an extra $10 monthly for the option to run on 4G networks and Clearwire charges an estimated $4.46 per 4G-handset owner. According to the Associated Press, Sprint will pay Clearwire $300 million this year and $550 million in 2012. Sprint will also reportedly pay an additional $175 million in a prepaid agreement to use the 4G WiMAX network this year and in the future. Sprint’s CEO, Dan Hesse, told the AP that his company is pleased to have reached a settlement.

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23 Comments

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  • Anonymous

    damn! they were trying to stick the company that owns a majority stake in their company? Seems like Hesse might need to start throwing out 12 different kinds of smoke.

  • http://it.bfitz.me/ Brian

    Either get the WiMax rollout rolling again or make the switch to LTE. I don’t think there’s been a new 4G market yet this year.

  • Rock Me Like A Hurricane

    Sprint saved their ass by charging everyone that extra $10 fee. It was so funny the shit they were trying to pull. They didn’t want to pay clearwire for handsets that were not in a 4G, but they were charging everyone $10 to everyone. Even the people that were not in a 4G area. So when faced with class action lawsuits what did they do……. They charrge everyone the $10 fee.

  • http://twitter.com/GiiVirgo Gabriel Garcia

    “Sprint argued that it shouldn’t have to pay a fee for 4G handsets that exist where Clearwire’s 4G WiMAX network isn’t available.”

    That’s my vote for quote of the year seeing as how Sprint’s customers felt the same way about paying an extra $10/month!

    #irony

  • Anonymous

    Maybe clear can actually get something accomplished now.

  • Matthew

    Sprint is just getting deeper into debt every time you hear about them.

  • Waffles & Fried Chicken

    Why did the Apple iPhone5 cross the street?

    Because the side it was on had WiMax & LTE, and the iPhone5 won’t have 4G. What a stinky turd it will be (says Yoda).

    • Anonymous

      hmmm… i see how you tried unsuccessfully to make your post relevant. I do like waffles and chicken though…

  • Anonymous

    sprint needs a new face

  • Generatione

    Ok so let me get this straight. Sprint doesn’t want to be charged for 4G when the customer isn’t in the 4G area but Sprint wants to charge the customer for 4G when the customer isn’t in the 4G area? Rofl!

    • jc1

      thats because the 10 dollar charge is NOT for 4G… how long is it going to take before some people get this fact through their head…its for smartphone data!!!!

      • Ph76er21

        That’s a bunch of bull……

      • jc1

        then why do ALL smarthphones have the 10 dollar charge, not just the 4G ones then…if thats “a bunch of bull” …

  • Anonymous

    Wouldn’t it had been better for Sprint to just buy Clearwire?

  • JD

    Still waiting for my 4G in Phoenix. I realize I have to accept that it may take awhile because I live in a ummm small market?!

    • http://twitter.com/asuengineer Miguel Ruiz

      Switch to verizon and get a htc thunderbolt. lte is alive and well in phoenix.

  • Anonymous

    Um, could someone please correct this article. Sprint does NOT charge a $10 fee for 4G, they never have. Most people were under the impression that “Premium Data” meant 4G data because it was the lazy way for sales consultants to explain what the extra $10 was all about. They do, however, charge a $10 extra on all new smartphones sold since late January. But at $79.99 for a single phone or $149.99 for two smartphones, they still have the some of the cheapest plans available in the industry with truly UNLIMITED data.

    • http://www.facebook.com/aedebiri Airen Edebiri

      They never called it a 4G fee because there’s no way they could have gotten away with directly associating the fee with 4G, since the MAJORITY of Sprint customers are NOT in their 4G coverage. The EVO launched in June of 2010. 7 months later in January 2011 they started charging the fee for all smartphones – they realized it was an easier way of hiding the fact that the fee was for 4G. No other non-4G phone launched after the EVO had the fee. So if the fee was for increased smartphone data usage, why did they just now start charging more for data (on non-4G phones) in 2011? Did something about those phones change? And why do they make it an “add-on”? Why not have a smartphone data plan and a non-smartphone data plan? I agree that Sprint is a great value, but the Premium Data “add-on” has never made sense, at least not with the way Sprint was explaining it.

      • Anonymous

        Maybe they started charging it on all smartphones becuase the data usage on all smartphones has increased with the ever increasing amount of apps that have become available. I’ve noticed even with my own older Android phone, my data usage has almost tripled since I bought it last May.

  • http://profiles.google.com/bphoffa Brandon Hoffman

    just give me .05% and i’ll be good!

  • Bigdog342b

    Do you realize that companies do trials to see what the response is of the customer and to see if they still buy things despite fees and other charges. The 10 dollars was always planned im sure and sprint was waiting to roll out the fee for all smart phones until they got all the data back from the other phones. Regardless how do you think a company can make money when they offer phones at the same price as their competitors is verizon and at&t. Then they have a cheaper plan then their competitors for said phone. Its crazy how people don’t put that together.

  • Johndoe

    Clear sucks!

  • Johndoe

    they charge sprint all that money ship their call centers over seas no American Tech support haha sucks to be clear

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