SPRINT CLEARWIRE IN TALKS TO EXTEND NETWORK SHARING PARTNERSHIP

Sprint and Clearwire are negotiating a network-sharing contract that will last beyond 2012, Bloomberg recently reported, noting a 29% surge in Clearwire’s stock price earlier Wednesday. CEO Dan Hesse explained on a conference call that Sprint could take advantage of Clearwire’s network in an effort to balance traffic on its planned 4G LTE network. While Sprint is “making very good progress on the technical front with Clearwire,” a deal is not yet final or definite. Sprint announced earlier this month that it plans to accelerate its 4G LTE roll-out and will launch its first markets by the middle of next year. The project is expected to be fully completed in 2013. Sprint’s move to LTE had originally suggested that its WiMAX relationship with Clearwire was coming to an end, but it appears that is no longer the case. Like Sprint, Clearwire has also said it will deploy a 4G LTE network if it can find the money. Most recently the carrier was courting AT&T and Verizon in an effort to bring in enough cash for the roll-out, which it expects to cost $600 million.

RUMOR: SPRINT IN TALKS TO ACQUIRE CLEARWIRE

Bloomberg is reporting Clearwire is currently in talks to sell its business to Sprint, and perhaps secure the funding it so desperately needs for a network build out. According to several insider sources, the third place wireless carrier's considering a joint investment (amongst other options) with Comcast, Cablevision and Cox, that would give the cablers a bundled high-speed, wireless broadband competitive advantage, and Sprint an LTE boost in its battle against AT&T and Verizon's rival 4G networks.

None of the players in this rumored takeover have yet to comment on the purported transaction, although the business gossip has had quite an uplifting effect on Clearwire's shares.

CLEARWIRE ANNOUNCES PLANS TO ADOPT 4G LTE

Clearwire on Wednesday announced its intent to adopt LTE across its network. The 4G wholesaler says it may add LTE Advanced-ready technology to its network that will provide up to 120Mbps download speeds according to network technology trials. ”Clearwire plans to raise the bar again for mobile broadband service in the United States,” said John Stanton, Clearwire’s Chairman and interim CEO, in a statement. “Our leadership in launching 4G services forced a major change in the competitive mobile data landscape. Now, we plan to bring our considerable spectrum portfolio to bear to deliver an LTE network capable of meeting the future demands of the market.”

Clearwire confirmed that it does not intend to discontinue support for its 4G WiMAX network in the near term, and it will continue to build out its WiMAX network. The company did not put a timeline on the plans, however, saying that its entire LTE deployment strategy is “subject to additional funding.”

RUMOR: CLEARWIRE SWITCHING TO LTE FROM WiMAX

In an interview with CNET, Clearwire’s chief operating officer Erik Prusch said that the carrier may eventually switch from WiMAX to LTE. “WiMAX to date has been a very good technology choice for us,” Prusch said. “We were able to take advantage of the speed to market before LTE was even a glimmer in anyone’s eye. But we recognize the ecosystem in the U.S. will be larger for LTE than WiMAX, so we are conscious of that.” Last summer Clearwire confirmed that it would begin testing 4G LTE trials in the U.S., and it expected to demonstrate that it “[could] deliver significantly higher performance using LTE technologies than any other operator.”

It’s unclear how those tests went, but Prusch did backtrack a bit and say that a switch isn’t definite, and that Clearwire needs to keep its eye on LTE and its ecosystem before pulling the trigger and setting a definite timeline.

Last month Sprint — which owns a majority stake of Clearwire — said that it has agreed to pay the company $1 billion through 2012 for fees associated with the use of Clearwire’s 4G WiMAX network.

CLEARWIRE SUED FOR FALSE ADVERTISING AND THROTTLING

WiMAX network operator Clearwire is the target of a new lawsuit that has been filed out of a Seattle district court. Lawyers representing the plaintiffs allege that Clearwire “throttles down the speed of its Internet service to speeds similar to dial-up telephone modem speeds,” and likens the company’s business practices to “a bandwidth Ponzi scheme.” Customers who are not satisfied with the speeds provided by Clearwire’s self-proclaimed high-speed internet are forced to pay early termination fees.

“Clearwire made materially false, misleading, and/or deceptive representations and omissions about the speed and capacity of its Internet service,” reads the court filing. “Rather than limiting its subscribers to a number that its broadband infrastructure can accommodate — such that Clearwire can make good on its representations regarding high-speed service and capacity — Clearwire signed up many more subscribers than it could handle so as to maximize revenue and profit.” The embattled network operator now faces false advertising claims from fifteen plaintiffs seeking class action status.

RUMOR: CLEARWIRE DITCHING RETAIL; GOING WHOLESALE ONLY

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Clearwire plans to exit the retail business and become solely a wholesale WiMax (and perhaps someday LTE) operator. An anonymous source (potentially at Sprint, who benefits the most from the news) doesn't specify when exactly this will happen, though they say the company has no plans to shut their 140 stores "at the moment." Reuters, who also spoke to two anonymous insiders, notes that Clearwire is stuck in leases so they can't cut retail presence just yet -- but they can cut advertising costs and put that money toward funding network expansion:

One of the sources said that while it would be difficult for Clearwire to get out of lease agreements for its stores it could instead pull back in areas such as advertising in order to prioritize spending on expanding its network. "It's more about not putting any more investment into areas like new ads," the person said.

That may not necessarily be a bad thing. Clearwire hasn't shown they're a particularly good retail residential ISP, their fixed service suffering from poor reviews, and their new WiMax service fairing only somewhat better, with users complaining of inconsistent coverage, signal quality issues, and random service throttling.

The move could certainly be good news for Sprint, who would then operate as the sole retail arm of the network -- something Sprint executives have preferred all along. It could also be good for Clearwire, who could now see more funding from a happier Sprint. Clearwire and Sprint's relationship had been fracturing over the last few years, with indicates that Sprint might just go ahead and build their own LTE network. Those plans could be less likely under a Clearwire LTE/Mobile WiMax wholesale model with Sprint as the primary retail player.

SONY ERICSSON SUES CLEARWIRE FOR TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT

Sony Ericsson is concerned that Clearwire might confuse folks by using a logo consisting of a "sphere with swirl marks" in the mobile market, so it's asking a court to prevent the company from continuing to use the logo in any way—and to grant some monetary damages.

Can you tell which logo above belongs to Sony Ericsson and which is Clearwire's?

CLEAR HOLDING LTE TRIALS; SAYS WiMAX STILL BEST

Clearwire's talking more about some of the glorious numbers it's seeing as it drives around the greater Phoenix area testing its trial LTE network, and we think one specific quote pretty much sums it up: "this isn't your grandfather's LTE." That statement was made in comparing Clearwire's results -- bumping up against 90Mbps in some configurations -- to the 5 to 12Mbps that Verizon is quoting for its first-gen commercial LTE network, though they're quick to note in the same breath that Clear's test is on an unloaded network without a deluge of users all trying to stream professional sports games in HD at the same time. What does that all mean for Clear's existing WiMAX deployment? The company's as noncommittal on the subject as ever, saying only that WiMAX continues to be "best for the customer" today but that "potentially in the future that could be WiMAX and LTE." Needless to say, though, they're taking the LTE option pretty seriously if they're dumping serious cash into testing it out and publishing the results.

CLEARWIRE LIGHTS UP NYC AND LA

Clearwire has announced they are making 4G resources available in NYC and LA.  Clearwire is giving select "early adopters" dual mode 3G/4G modems.  They are warning however that 4G is not fully built out in either city yet.

The early adopters will pay $35 for the first 2 months, then $55 per month after.  Clearwire has also stated "During this construction phase, owners of CLEAR 4G devices may also experience 4G coverage while traveling to other cities that Clearwire plans to launch commercially later this year, including: San Francisco; Tampa, Miami, and Orlando, Fla.; Nashville, Denver, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburg.” [Boy Genius Report]

CLEARWIRE TO OFFER PAY-AS-YOU-GO

In a SEC filing WiMax provider Clearwire states they will be offering a pay-as-you-go service.  The companies filing states it "plans to serve a new pay-as-you-go customer segment".  No other details were offered so it is unclear what Clearwire has planned.  Some analysts have speculated this new offering is in response to MetroPCS's impending entry into the prepaid 4G market.  

Clearwire's network is also resold thru Best Buy, Comcast, Sprint and Time Warner.  There is no word on how this move by Clearwire will affect the services offered by these resellers. [Fierce Wireless]