DALLAS — Sprint Nextel has kept wireless network observers busy recently thanks to its Network Vision initiative, which will see the carrier upgrade virtually all of its current cell sites, as well as its more recent announcement to deploy LTE services and begin hosting spectrum from other potential wireless players.
At this week’s LTE North America event in Dallas, Stephen Bye, Sprint Nextel’s chief technology officer and vice president of technology development and strategy, used a keynote address to shed more light on those network plans and how the carrier views the future of mobile data networks. Bye explained that those plans are based on the mantra that carriers are now forced to build mobile data networks instead of voice networks.
As part of those network plans, Sprint Nextel is looking to move CDMA services down to its 800 MHz spectrum holdings that currently support its iDEN service, which it’s set to shutter in the coming years. The carrier is also looking to deploy LTE services using a 10 megahertz block of spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band that will at some point be supplemented by an eventual move of the technology into the 800 MHz band.
Sprint Nextel also recently signed a multiyear agreement with Clearwire, which Bye said remains a “very important” partner, a relationship highlighted by Clearwire’s vast spectrum resources that continue to power Sprint Nextel’s 4G service and Sprint Nextel’s continued controlling stake in Clearwire. (It’s always good to have a “very important” partnership with a company you own a controlling stake in.)
As for its LightSquared plans, Bye said the decision to host spectrum on its network made sense financially.
“We are not putting spectrum on our network for free,” he quipped.
The carrier is so pleased with the possibilities that Bye noted the carrier was looking for additional spectrum hosting possibilities.
Sprint Nextel has also recently made marketing waves as the remaining nationwide operator providing flat-rate, unlimited data services for smartphones. While Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse has made comments that such a policy may not be supportable in the long term, Bye explained that the financial impact of the offering needs to be viewed in a larger context.
Bye noted that carriers needed to balance the costs associated with upgrading their networks in order to handle increased data consumption that comes along with unlimited data plans against the increased costs associated with customer dissatisfaction that comes along with potential overage charges, throttled data speeds and corresponding increased churn.
“Tiered plans push the emphasis back on the consumer,” Bye said.
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