The Wall Street Journal reports the Sprint is preparing to "bet the company" on the iPhone, agreeing to purchase 30.5 million units over the next four years regardless of whether they are purchased by customers or not. At a current average selling price of $655 for the iPhone, the agreement is a nearly $20 billion commitment for Sprint. Mr. Hesse told the board the carrier would have to agree to purchase at least 30.5 million iPhones over the next four years—a commitment of $20 billion at current rates—whether or not it could find people to buy them, according to people familiar with the matter. In order to keep the price people pay for the phone low and competitive with rivals, Sprint would be subsidizing the cost of each phone to the tune of about $500, which would take a long time to recoup even at the high monthly fees iPhone users pay. With a source calling the projected hit to Sprint's operating income "staggering", the company's directors agreed to the deal as an all-in gamble to give Sprint hopes of competing against AT&T and Verizon. WSJ
In the wake of the new report on Sprint's massive iPhone commitment, BGR separately reports that this development may lend weight to a claim it had heard that had previously seemed outrageous – that the iPhone 5 does indeed exist and that it will launch as a 4G WiMAX device as a Sprint exclusive. I have been told that Sprint will be getting the iPhone 5 — yes the real iPhone 5, not the iPhone 4S — as an exclusive. And it will be a WiMAX device. AT&T and Verizon would launch the iPhone 4S and get the iPhone 5 sometime in the first quarter of next year as an LTE device. Globally, the iPhone 5 might be available as a 4G HSPA+ device. The claim reportedly comes from an "incredibly solid" industry contact and is one which has seemed simply unbelievable. But with Sprint clearly betting the future of the company on the iPhone, it is at least possible that it may have gone to extreme lengths to make a staggering entrance to the iPhone market. Who knows???:hmm: Doesn't sound real to me... BGR
Does not surprise me. Sprint has a long history of betting the long term survival of the company on decisions like this. I'm shocked they have managed to stay in business this long.
Iphone 5 to Sprint? Lots of Speculation out there. Did Sprint Pay a Fortune For iPhone 5 Exclusive? - CEO States They Won't Make Money on Deal Until 2014 | DSLReports.com, ISP Information Only time will tell
This is easily the most insane thing I have heard in the wireless industry in a long time. Sprints current 3G network is incredibly over-loaded with no backhaul to support what they already have. Throw in their miserable 4G coverage, and this doesn't make sense. Apple is in the business of having their products "just work," and Sprint is the opposite of that model. People will have incredibly slow data on 3G, and may never even see 4G on WiMax. The last thing Apple wants is for people to think its the phones fault and not Sprints sub-part networks.
Gotta love the rumor mill New iPhone(s) Won't Support Next-Gen Networks - Contradicting Reports of Mobile WiMax iPhone 5 | DSLReports.com, ISP Information
I would've thought Sprint's network is not so congested. After all they haven't added that many customers since the Nextel disaster.... oops, merger.
I don't think so. IDEN doesn't share bandwidth with CDMA because IDEN uses a dedicated 800Mhz portion that's been there since Nextel was born. Same thing with WiMAX which is up in the non-standard 2.5Ghz area. Their 3G network is split just like Verizon's. Voice (CDMA) and data (EVDO). Now with LTE coming, I don't know what they'll be using: AWS 1700Mhz? AWS 700Mhz? or share it with their current 1900Mhz network.
Doesn't sound real at all to me considering that this is not the way Apple operates. Think of how long 3G was available before the iPhone 3G came out. Also, consider that Sprint's WiMAX is a dying technology which is doomed for a 2012 death. Makes no sense for Apple to come up with a WiMAX device. Plus LTE is in its infancy right now. Sprint doesn't have enough LTE footprint to promote an LTE device yet. So I expect the Sprint iPhone to be a 3G EVDO device just like Verizon's iPhone 4. In my opinion, we might see an iPhone 5 that is HSPA+ for AT&T, and an EVDO iPhone 5 for Verizon and Sprint. Then late next year an iPhone 6 that will be LTE. But that's just my forecast. Who knows....
I can't figure that out either. Sprint hasn't really taken on many customers since 2006 so not sure why people are reporting the congestion or why it's happened in some areas. But Sprint has been working real hard to install new evdo carriers over the past 2 years. Some people have noticed the improvements and some haven't but things will be improving and I am predicting it will happen fast. Right now as we speak Sprint has a contractor installing a fiber optic cable at their cell site that's closest to me. So it appears that network vision has begun.
Sprint may not have added many new customers, but it is an obvious fact that each subscriber is using tons and tons more data than ever before. I am willing to bet that many, many sites have the same amount of backhaul on EVDO now that they did when they launched EVDO in 2005. The fact that they are just now signing deals to install fiber to their sites leads me to believe that a whopping majority of their sites are still running off T1 lines, which is woefully inadequate for what users want to do now. Add all the EVDO carriers you want, but it won't help unless the backhaul is there. Larry, hopefully Sprint treats the rest of the country like they have your area. I know the NYC/LI market is still very, very slow. Also of note, every other carrier has added tons of new sites in the past few years, except for Sprint. I can only think of a small handful of new Sprint sites in the past 5 years.
During the Apple event, Apple did say that Sprint will get the iPhone 4s. Most likely not the WiMax version at first. So now all the carrier will have the iPhone 4 ( not sure about tmobile yet)
I won't argue with that! You mean in your area? Because I can think of hundreds of new sites that Sprint has added in the last 5 years in my area and in many other markets as well. I should know, I used to obtain the list of those sites and post them on forums every couple of weeks. I still have those updates too and new sites are still being added all the time.
It seems like they have added a lot more out west. After the initial rollour of the hybrid sites in (what was it, 2007?) there has been nothing going on in major markets like NYC and LI. I think one site has gone up along with T-Mobile at JFK airport and another in upper nassau county, and thats it for the last 6 years on Long Island.
Yes Sprint does use T-1's still but that is the standard for everyone, be it coming in on copper, fiber or across a microwave hop. A T-1 is 1.5mbps but on a Sprint EVDO carrier you may have multiple T-1's and also multiple EVDO carriers at one site. These T-1's are bundled so for example if you have 4 t-1's on a single site with one EVDO carrier, in a perfect world you will have 6mbps. This does not happen in the real world but you could very well see 2.0mbps which gets the job done. By the way most Sprint sites in the core have multiple EVDO carriers at each site, they have been gearing up for more and more data for sometime now.
I don't know about that. I remember listing a bunch of new sites in NYC and Brooklyn areas. Even well after 2007. Florida also got a whole slew as did Atlanta, GA. Michigan was getting some good activity as well in 2009/2010. Maine got at least a dozen new sites in 2009 & 2010.
Doesn't Sprint only have about 50 million subscribers? 30.5 million over 4 years is a little over 7.5 million/year. Will 15% of their customers really switch to a phone that currently doesn't have the 4G connectivity their current phones have? Will they really attract that many people from AT&T and Verizon?
lol. I at least know of two at&t iPhone users they would attract. My entire family used Sprint until fairly recently. My brother finally joined his wife with an iPhone on at&t so they could utilize the savings of a family plan (she'd moved to at&t for the iPhone several years back). But he laments that his at&t coverage/service is not what he's been accustomed to for a number of years - both living and traveling in multiple locations while on Sprint.
