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Hesse: WiMAX will reach 140M potential customers by 2010
Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse said he anticipates the company's WiMAX network, which is expected to be combined with Clearwire shortly, to reach 140 million potential customers by 2010. Hesse, speaking at a National Press Club luncheon last week in Washington, D.C., said he expects a combined company to obtain regulatory approval and officially combine by the end of the year. The FCC is expected to vote on the deal on Nov. 4.
He said Sprint chose WiMAX as a 4G standard because it is "available now and our customers want 4G now." He was confidentWiMAX would minimize the market penetration of LTE simply because WiMAX is coming to market first. The company has deployed WiMAX in Baltimore and plans to deploy it in Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., pending the close of the deal.
After another tough week in the financial markets, Hesse also addressed concerns about how the downturn in the economy would affect the wireless industry. He noted that the industry will likely see a decrease in enterprise subscribers as businesses lay off workers, but said that Sprint was in a good position because it was cash-flow positive.
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Comments (6) | Post a comment
Comments
Posted by Anonymous | October 27, 2008 - 1:13pm
What am I missing?
140M customers in 2 years?
Did anyone challenge him? That is more than the number of US households, nearly half of the US population, for a service that is data base (ie not handheld voice phones).
Posted by Anonymous | October 27, 2008 - 2:11pm
just read the title of the article again ... "potential customers" means that they will have WiMax coverage there.
Posted by Anonymous | October 27, 2008 - 2:37pm
I agree that this is misleading. Broadband and video providers speak in terms of "homes passed". This clearly assumes more than one "customer" per household and totally avoids Sprint actually subscriber projections.
Posted by Lynnette Luna | October 27, 2008 - 2:46pm
That is how wireless operators talk about coverage: POPs or potential customers covered by a footprint. This doesn't really have anything to do with subscriber projections but more of wireless coverage and footprint.--Lynnette
