Sprint CEO Dan Hesse: Big 4G announcements coming this fall

BGR is at Sprint’s corporate headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas this week for a few days of meetings, tours of the massive Sprint campus and, of course, delicious barbecue. Expect plenty of coverage to come, but among the first stops this afternoon was a great little Q&A session with Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. Sprint’s chief executive had plenty to say about the AT&T/T-Mobile merger as he always does, though he was very candid with us today in admitting that his mission is both personal and professional. Hesse has a long history in the wireless industry as well all know, and he sees this merger as potentially putting an end to the wireless landscape as we know it in the U.S. “I hope you like 4G,” Hesse said, “because it could be the last generation of wireless network in the U.S.” Hesse feels like he has some level of personal duty to ensure that competition and innovation are maintained in the U.S. market, and while Sprint does have contingency plans in place, he is doing everything in his power to ensure that the FCC makes “the right decision.” Hesse also fielded several questions concerning Clearwire’s — and in turn, Sprint’s — stalled 4G WiMAX rollout in the face of Verizon’s aggressive LTE rollout and T-Mobile’s aggressive HSPA+ 42 upgrades. Hesse acknowledged that things have slowed lately, but he confirmed that Sprint has big plans moving forward that will be revealed this fall. In short, Sprint is most certainly not standing still. Of course no comment was made regarding the rumored LightSquared deal that could bring 4G LTE to Sprint subscribers in the near future.