After months of speculation, Clearwire Corp. (CLWR) has officially thrown its hat into the LTE space announcing plans to overlay its current WiMAX network with equipment compatible with the TDD LTE-Advanced standard.
The carrier said it would continue to support its current WiMAX network covering more than 132 million potential customers and is the basis for “4G” offerings from a number of industry players, including Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) Clearwire did note that the LTE upgrade plans would be dependent on the carrier securing funding for the build out, which it expects to run $600 million to mirror its WiMAX deployment.
Clearwire was quick to note that the initial overlay plans would not be in concert with Sprint Nextel's Network Vision initiative, though it remained in talks with its majority owner over using the network assets to expand coverage beyond Clearwire's current footprint. Sprint Nextel was expected to provide additional insight into the Network Vision plans during its earnings release last week, but put off the subject until October citing possible last-minute changes to the plans.
Clearwire said that the LTE plans followed a successful trial of the technology in its Phoenix market. Those trials were designed to show the coexistence of WiMAX and LTE services on the same network with test results showing network speeds of up to 120 megabits per second in a fixed environment and 90 Mbps in a mobile environment using 40 megahertz of total spectrum (2x20) and the FDD-LTE standard.
Timing for the LTE roll out is up in the air pending adequate financing, though Clearwire did note that an overlay would likely take 12 months per market and that it would focus initially on markets where it was seeing the greatest mobile broadband demand. While a vendor for the LTE rollout was not named, Clearwire recently signed a network outsourcing deal with L.M. Ericsson, which Clearwire's SVP and CTO John Saw noted would be a likely candidate for the upgrade contract.
Shaw also said that Clearwire would be able to re-use much of its WiMAX infrastructure for the LTE overlay, including backhaul, network core, site switches, site controllers and batteries at the cell sites. He did note that there might need to be some upgrades to select backhaul links to support the additional capacity and that equipment in markets launched before 2010, including Portland, might require additional upgrades at the cell site. In addition Shaw said that Clearwire's current 27 swithcing centers can all be reused, including the routers from Cisco Systems Inc. and Juniper Networks, though LTE specific EPC boxes would need to be added at the switching centers.
Further comments indicated that Clearwire did not expect to begin booking revenues from an LTE network until at least 2013.
In the meantime, Clearwire said it was continuing its ongoing negotiations into securing additional funding to support expansion, saying a number of options remain on the table, including a spectrum sale, additional investments from current partners or debt offerings.
The carrier said it would continue to support its current WiMAX network covering more than 132 million potential customers and is the basis for “4G” offerings from a number of industry players, including Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) Clearwire did note that the LTE upgrade plans would be dependent on the carrier securing funding for the build out, which it expects to run $600 million to mirror its WiMAX deployment.
Clearwire was quick to note that the initial overlay plans would not be in concert with Sprint Nextel's Network Vision initiative, though it remained in talks with its majority owner over using the network assets to expand coverage beyond Clearwire's current footprint. Sprint Nextel was expected to provide additional insight into the Network Vision plans during its earnings release last week, but put off the subject until October citing possible last-minute changes to the plans.
Clearwire said that the LTE plans followed a successful trial of the technology in its Phoenix market. Those trials were designed to show the coexistence of WiMAX and LTE services on the same network with test results showing network speeds of up to 120 megabits per second in a fixed environment and 90 Mbps in a mobile environment using 40 megahertz of total spectrum (2x20) and the FDD-LTE standard.
Timing for the LTE roll out is up in the air pending adequate financing, though Clearwire did note that an overlay would likely take 12 months per market and that it would focus initially on markets where it was seeing the greatest mobile broadband demand. While a vendor for the LTE rollout was not named, Clearwire recently signed a network outsourcing deal with L.M. Ericsson, which Clearwire's SVP and CTO John Saw noted would be a likely candidate for the upgrade contract.
Shaw also said that Clearwire would be able to re-use much of its WiMAX infrastructure for the LTE overlay, including backhaul, network core, site switches, site controllers and batteries at the cell sites. He did note that there might need to be some upgrades to select backhaul links to support the additional capacity and that equipment in markets launched before 2010, including Portland, might require additional upgrades at the cell site. In addition Shaw said that Clearwire's current 27 swithcing centers can all be reused, including the routers from Cisco Systems Inc. and Juniper Networks, though LTE specific EPC boxes would need to be added at the switching centers.
Further comments indicated that Clearwire did not expect to begin booking revenues from an LTE network until at least 2013.
In the meantime, Clearwire said it was continuing its ongoing negotiations into securing additional funding to support expansion, saying a number of options remain on the table, including a spectrum sale, additional investments from current partners or debt offerings.
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