Sprint to deploy 4G LTE network with LightSquared

By on Jun 17, 2011 at 5:04 PM
Breaking June 17, 2011

Sprint has reached a deal to deploy a 4G LTE network with LightSquared, Bloomberg reports. The deal could be worth as much as $20 billion over the next 15 years according to the report. “LightSquared and Sprint will jointly develop, deploy and operate LightSquared’s 4G LTE network,” LightSquared owner Philip Falcone wrote in a letter to Harbinger Capital Partners investors on Friday. “Sprint will become a significant customer of LightSquared’s 4G LTE network.” It is unclear what implications the deal might have for Sprint’s current 4G WiMAX network. A Sprint spokesperson declined to comment.

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  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JNKVTT7PJMXPYP2GVCIERBQQCU Andrew

    We all knew WiMax was done for mobile internet before the EVO came out. 

    • Anonymous

      WiMax was a jumpstart for Sprint to be 1st at 4G, satisfy the ones who let the Nextel purchase go through, and gain some customers(which they did with the Evo4G).

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JNKVTT7PJMXPYP2GVCIERBQQCU Andrew

        They would have been better off to have LTE deployed by now and could have been the first to do that if they weren’t working on a technology that they will eventually abandon.  Whether it was a jumpstart ot not, we knew it was done.

      • Dman2123

        And how do you suppose they do that without Clear and there spectrum????  That is what the whole base station retro fit is for.  The free up the Nextel spectrum to delpoy LTE.  They did what they had to do.

      • Anonymous

        does anyone remember Project Leapfrog? 

      • Anonymous

        They were forced into Wimax by the fcc to make the Nextel deal go thru.. Sprint had to be selling services on the 2500mhz spectrum by 2008. LTE was no where near ready. Clear knew LTE was made for phones and Clear knew Sprint has tons of spectrum and Clear knew Sprint and VZW have an intense rivalry for pushing new tech (digital, 3G, and 4G).. If this surprises Clear at all they need a whole new executive team.. WiMax will be used for non-phone 4G like it was intended, and Sprint will have two 4G options to choose from.. That’s if Clear doesn’t switch to LTE as well.. The spectrum is worth more than oil they will find a way to turn a profit

  • Anonymous

    Ok Sprint, lets go to work!

  • Anonymous

    Soooooo what’s going to happen with my new shiny 4g (photon, e3d, sg2)?????? Garbage. Hopefully by the time they get long in the tooth, LTE will be deployed in my area as i thought…I said the same thing about wimax too :(

    And I better not see any top shelf LTE data fee either…..

    • Nyynke98

      Not really, as the EVO 3D has the ability to work on the 800 spectrum, which is part of the new network they are deploying. You won’t be isolated to one technology, but will have the benefits of working across all spectrums in their bag. Technology will be software based in their network and can be added or taken away as technologies emerge or age

  • Sin City

    BGR using a wrong title.  Sprint and Lightsquared agreed to their network sharing deal, not Sprint using Lightsquared to deploy LTE.  I’ll wait for this to be official too.

  • DODGERAM02

    lol i live in DES MOINES IOWA an dont even get 4g on my EVO..BLOWS..

    • Scott

      I have no idea where your little hick town in iowa is… but I can tell you that there isn’t any WiMax 4G in Phoenix, Az. Now go back to boning your cousin. 

      • Jim

        I’ve been to Des Moines, IA and it’s nicer than Pheonix… Just sayin’.

      • Booyah

        Sorry there’s no 4G in your little dustbowl of a town but I’m loving my glorious wimax signal here in Chicago! A real city. Now you go back to your racist politicians and your wildfires.

      • Chicagowhere

        Where the fuck is Chicago anyway? I’ve heard of it, but that’s only cuz Oprah lives there when she’s not in Santa Barbara.

      • Fbever01

         There are 13 Wimax basestations deployed by Clearwire in Phoenix

      • cj

        obvious troll is obvious

    • http://profiles.google.com/kstagg Kevin Stagg

      Unless your phone is powered by corn oil, you’re screwed anyway. Sorry bud. No probs in Dallas on my EVO.

  • Anonymous

    Well, this is Kind of cool. I still plan on getting the Evo 3D on Day 1. Its gonna take LightSquared and Sprint at least a year to get some working devices on LTE. Also, with the bew agreement Sprint just made with Clear, WiMax is not going anywhere anytime soon. But I’m willing to bet the next generation Evo will be an LTE phone, or maybe even a dual 4G WiMax/LTE phone. 

    • http://briefmobile.com/ Korey Nicholson

      What if I told you that Sprint is ready to cover 80 million people in LTE by the end of this year?

      • Cer

        What if I told you I could turn feces into gold?

      • Anonymous

        i would agree with you because of the plan’s that they already knew there were going to have to move to LTE soon. An ppl forget that Wimax can be upgraded to LTE by a few software updates, ppl realy need to read more. An my guess is with this new news and a future annoncement that the Nexus 3(whatever) is coming to sprint like i think alot of ppl kind of already knew.

      • Scott

        Nexus 3 will go GSM first any day and every day before there will be a CDMA version. 

      • Waterpotumus

        I would tell you that “covering people” is a marketing tool. You see that language used when you can’t compete with geographical coverage. For example, Verizon’s 3G Map campaign against AT&T resulted in similar language. The problem with it, is that people are not static objects. They travel. They move. They visit relatives. They ARE MOBILE. Its kinda why they call them “mobile phones”.

  • tehdude

    Sprint is so hosed. They chase after all the bright, shiny objects and deploy all these disparate, competing networks at the same time they’re losing customers? Stupid.

    • Deval

      Who’s losing customers? T-Mobile is…Sprint has been gaining subs for the last 6 quarters now

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JNKVTT7PJMXPYP2GVCIERBQQCU Andrew

        Not sure where you are getting your news.  But from a business week article citing Bloomberg in Feb:

        “Feb. 10 (Bloomberg) — Sprint Nextel Corp., the third- largest U.S.
        mobile-phone carrier, reported a narrower loss after gaining two-year
        contract customers for the first time in 13 quarters.”

        Where do you get 6 straight quarters?

        Furthermore, they added 60k.  Big whoop while AT&T added over 1.2 million between the 2 in the same period.

      • http://briefmobile.com/ Korey Nicholson

        That’s not true…Sprint gained 1.1 million last quarter alone.

    • Sugar booger

      troll on moron …sprint is doing just fine -you FAIL so hard

    • Anonymous

      Sprint certainly isn’t doing bad customer wise but they offer the the slowest mobile data speeds sitting right next to ATT. I will probably move over to Sprint once they get there LTE network up and running but I refuse to take a back step in terms of my data speed. I am averaging about 10mb/s download wise in Baltimore and I haven’t seen any of my friends 4G enabled Sprint phones pass 4mb/s. WiMax is seriously a joke.

    • Anonymous

      Sprint has a goldmine of prime 4G spectrum.. That’s one of the main reasons for the AT&T and T-mobile merger.. People are ignorant as hell. I guess whoever has the coolest commercials is a success…

  • http://www.facebook.com/EvolutionRisin Geary Saddler

    OK, so it looks like the Evo 3D, Photon 4G or Galaxy S II will be the last WiMax phone I ever buy since a LTE phone should be out by then (2 year contract)

    • serpentor

      You only buy 1 smartphone every 2 years?!?!

      GTFO

  • http://twitter.com/DaJagman Jonathan Harmon

    My Ghetto Cell Phone Provider is about to become “Ghetto Fabulous”

    • Homer

      I didn’t realize this was a post about T-Mobile…???

  • Dejan Jancevski

    All I have to say is this…

    1. Sprint HAD a decent “4G” lead with announcing that they were going to deploy a WiMAX network.  Not bad.
    2a. Sprint knew it owned 100% of that 2.5Ghz spectrum that they wanted to make WiMAX (or LTE) FAST!
    2b. Sprint opts to NOT bid for the 700Mhz spectrum which Verizon and AT&T bought up BIG TIME!
    3. Sprint gave away their 2.5Ghz spectrum to Clearwire for a paltry 51% of the “new” Clearwire.
    4. Clearwire has failed to expand their WiMAX network appreciably, despite the nearly 2 year head start.
    5. Verizon has already overtaken Clearwire in “4G” coverage and deployment, despite the 2 year head start.
    6. Sprint recently has sold off some of its stake in Clearwire, now only having an even paltrier 45% share.
    7. Sprint tries to ameliorate their mistakes by blaming EVERYTHING that is wrong with Sprint on Nextel; Sprint opts to shut down iDEN and re-assign the 800 and 900 Mhz spectrum that Nextel uses to Sprint’s CDMA phones.
    8. Sprint signs an agreement with LightSquared in order to NOT be left in the dust!

    So what’s my point?  Sprint is toast!  And no, not in a good way either. 

    • Sin City

      I agree with you Dejan.  Sit there and wait for Sprint to be toast.  I was camping out to that speech for 3 years now.  Could be 4, not sure.

      • Dman2123

        It is crazy how stupid people really are.  Sprint is toast????? They by far own the biggest pipeline for data.  The future is data.  They freed up the best spectrum they have for in building coverage with the offing the Nextel brand. They are completely overhauling with the base station retrofit that will include all 3 bands of spectrum.  They have the most “free” money of all the companies. #1 in customer satisfaction.  Also they are signing companies on to help build out on the retrofit project.  I don’t see how they are toast but i do see how the future looks and it is BRIGHT!!!!

      • FormerSprintemployee

        Yeah this is why Sprint is scared sh$%less about AT&T buying T-Mobile.  

        If they really are as secure as you claim then they are making a bunch of noise for nothing.  

        Hesse is even quoted as stating they may not last long if the merger is approved. 

      • Green0273

        Sprint is toast because the wimax spectrum cant penetrate walls and the new deal with lightsquared uses spectrums that interfere with gps devices. Clearwire is hurting for $ big time and God knows what Lightsquared really will do. It is possible, however, that if Sprint recieves money from a result of the AT&Tmobile merger, they could be in much better shape and I think that would actually be fare. The extra cash influx could help them expand wimax and help start lightsquared.If Sprint can get their shit together, it’ll be at least 2 years and a half before they can barely compete in the 4g game

    • Cer

      Wow, a fully informed comment backed up by substantial facts. Am I really at BGR?

  • Anonymous

    Ok Sprint……..Now WE ARE COOKING WITH GAS BABY!!!!! 

  • Anonymous

    Are we talking about the same LightSquared that seems to mess with GPS? Or are we talking about something else?

    • UndeadNexus

      If Sprint was smart, they would use their 800 MHz spectrum (iDEN) for their LTE network once they phase it out.

  • http://twitter.com/EricSeale Eric in Milpitas

    Is this going to be around 700Mhz or something useless over 2Ghz?

    • Cer

      I hope it’s 4700 mHz. Best LTE ever!

    • UndeadNexus

      They’ll probably use the 800 MHz spectrum they use for their iDEN network.

    • Anonymous

      it should be 800 Mhz

  • http://twitter.com/pablostation8 pablostation8

    Its been said in many articles by Sprint that they would likely run both 4G WiMAX and LTE concurrently. 

    • Cer

      What is the point of doing that?

      • UndeadNexus

        Gee, I don’t know. Maybe so they can continue to support everyone’s WiMAX phones until their contracts are up so they can get an LTE phone?

      • serpentor

        Not to mention Clear users.

  • Gquaglia

    Good luck with that Sprint. Light squared is DOA with the GPS interference issues.

  • FormerSprintemployee

    Anytime Sprint has to partner with another company to provide a service they can’t afford to offer on their own means another 4G tax.  

    $10 or $15 “advanced connection fee,” anyone? 

    • UndeadNexus

      I doubt that as the article didn’t fully explain the deal very well. LightSquared is paying Sprint $15 billion to use their LTE network.

      • FormerSprintemployee

        LightSquared is NOT simply handing over $20 billion in cash.  Where did you get those facts?  It’s a bit more complicated than that.

        Sprint has done a lot of big things recently that ended up crap.  Started with the Nextel purchase, WiMax deployment, partnership with Clearwire and now this.  

    • Anonymous

      um clearly you must not have read the full reports form earlier late last month about this deal. L.S will be paying sprint to piggy back off its towers. L.S just became an investor not a contractor. 

    • Homer

      There are 4G charges with all the carriers regardless of any partnership. I’d rather pay $10 a month for it with Sprint than get robbed for $30 per month with Verizon… And as if they’re not already the most expensive in everything wireless they will soon be axing that $30 data plan to move to tiered data plans, which the rates most certainly will be hilarious.

  • http://twitter.com/mr_florida elieser bocio

    wimax what a waste of money 

  • http://twitter.com/ggore Glenn Gore

    By the time any of this Sprint LTE sytem is physically BUILT, which will probably be 5-10 years from now, the entire cellphone industry will have moved on from 4G/LTE to 6 or 7G-whatever they call it.   They are probably about ready to announce next week what the “next big thing/standard” will be.   Makes no difference at all, and meanwhile those of us who live only 30 miles outside the major metropolitan areas still don’t have 1G or 2G service, let alone 3G.

  • Anonymous

    Oh man…maybe a future where everyone is on LTE, and therefore any phone can be used on any network depending on the SIM card installed isn’t all that far off after all

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YOZKW4BDQLQLVWM56GVM4KIFLA John Roth

    Are we talking about the same LightSquared that seems to mess with GPS? Or are we talking about something else? I paid $32.67 for a XBOX 360 and my mom got a 17 inch Toshiba laptop for $94.83 being delivered to our house tomorrow by FedEX. I will never again pay expensive retail prices at stores. I even sold a 46 inch HDTV to my boss for $650 and it only cost me $52.78 to get. Here is the website we using to get all this stuff, BidsGet. com

  • jezza

    Clearwire effed itself  . . .  Sprint effed Clearwire . . .  Clearwire is a bitch

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