Sprint says Clearwire is part of its future plans

Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint, says that Clearwire and WiMax are going to be part of its future plans, regardless of the direction it takes. There was a bit of tension between the carrier and the WiMax service provider when the two disagreed on WiMax fees. The drama stirred up by the press was furthered when Sprint decided not to purchase Clearwire’s debts.

However, Hesse says that Clearwire and its WiMax infrastructure and technology will be part of “every option” for Sprint’s future. BusinessWeek reports:

Hesse said he’d like to see Overland Park, Kansas-based Sprint do more network sharing with Clearwire, which sells capacity from its own network to Sprint and other carriers. He spoke today at the Deutsche Bank AG Media & Telecom Conference in Palm Beach, Florida. Clearwire is 54 percent owned by Sprint.

Deutsche Telekom AG has held talks to sell its T-Mobile USA unit to Sprint in exchange for a major stake in the combined entity, according to people with knowledge of the discussions, as Bloomberg reported yesterday.

There has also been word that Deutsche Telekom is in talks with Sprint for the latter to acquire T-Mobile USA, but the two have been unable to negotiate proper valuations for T-Mobile, the nation’s fourth largest carrier.

With or without a merger, Sprint is going to move forward with WiMax. Its newest high-end smartphones all feature the 4G technology, like the HTC EVO 4G, Epic 4G and the coming Nexus S 4G that we’re expecting to see at CTIA in a few weeks. With these WiMax-equipped phones in the pipeline, it’s pretty clear that the carrier’s strategy is to expand and push its 4G services to existing and new customers over the years.

[Via: BusinessWeek]