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Broadband & Mobile Featured Article
December 06, 2007
Sprint to Seek Funding for WiMax Plans
By Tim Gray TMCnet Web Editor
Sprint (News - Alert) Nextel’s acting CEO Paul Saleh told investors the telecom giant is weighing options of spinning off the company’s high-speed WiMax service, according to a published report.
The company is hoping such a move might attract investors in a bid to reduce the cost of building a multibillion-dollar network by 2010, according to a report by Bloomberg News.
Sprint has been pushing the potential advantages of new high-speed WiMax wireless technology that would allow consumers to connect laptops, digital cameras and other gadgets to the Internet for some time.
In August, the company said it was ready to spend as much as $5 billion over the next few years and bring the new services to 100 million potential customers by the end of 2008
However, divesting its nationwide 4G network based on WiMax technology and then buying broadband wireless services back from the unit, would leave Sprint without a 4G strategy.
Saleh told investors at a UBS conference in New York that creating a separate investor-funded WiMax entity was one of a number of options under consideration, according to the report.
"We are looking at ways of attracting capital to that [WiMax] business," Saleh said.
However, he told analysts, Sprint Nextel (News - Alert) remained committed to WiMax.
Sprint Nextel's board has been looking for a chief executive for several months because of the company's disappointing financial performance and loss of customers
Tim Gray is a Web Editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP
communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To see more of his articles, please visit Tim Gray’s columnist page.
The company is hoping such a move might attract investors in a bid to reduce the cost of building a multibillion-dollar network by 2010, according to a report by Bloomberg News.
Sprint has been pushing the potential advantages of new high-speed WiMax wireless technology that would allow consumers to connect laptops, digital cameras and other gadgets to the Internet for some time.
In August, the company said it was ready to spend as much as $5 billion over the next few years and bring the new services to 100 million potential customers by the end of 2008
However, divesting its nationwide 4G network based on WiMax technology and then buying broadband wireless services back from the unit, would leave Sprint without a 4G strategy.
Saleh told investors at a UBS conference in New York that creating a separate investor-funded WiMax entity was one of a number of options under consideration, according to the report.
"We are looking at ways of attracting capital to that [WiMax] business," Saleh said.
However, he told analysts, Sprint Nextel (News - Alert) remained committed to WiMax.
Sprint Nextel's board has been looking for a chief executive for several months because of the company's disappointing financial performance and loss of customers
Tim Gray is a Web Editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP
communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To see more of his articles, please visit Tim Gray’s columnist page.
