Sprint to Bring Clearwire's WiMAX Network to an End

Sprint Nextel was the nation’s largest holder of radio spectrum in what considered the precious 2.5 GHz band. It was at that time that Sprint had chosen to deploy Worldwide Interoperability of Microwave Access (WiMAX) as the foundation of its technology platform for the carrier’s mobile broadband Next-Generation Network (NGN) build-out.

Of course, back in 2006, third generation, or 3G networking was all the rage. It wasn’t until several years later that everyone wanted 4G speeds, which soon became the standard. This was the market that WiMAX was intended for. WiMAX provided high-throughput broadband connections over long distances. WiMAX could be used for a number of applications, including last mile broadband connections, hotspot and cellular backhaul, as well as high-speed enterprise connectivity for businesses.

After all this time, Sprint has decided and announced to its customers in the form of a newsletter that 13 months from today it will shut down its WiMAX network. This information comes to us through a leak to Android Central. Sprint’s customers will have just slightly over one year to upgrade all of the equipment that is currently running on the WiMAX network. Customers are expected to receive letters in the mail sometime this week notifying them that they have until November 6, 2015, to get new devices.

We have seen other carriers shut down older networks that were no longer able to provide reliable and fast service. It is not a new concept to see these older networks being put to rest. If you are looking for the positive side to a shutdown, the carrier will regain the spectrum previously used and it will become available for other uses.

According to the Register, Sprint, which is the nation’s third largest carrier, will use the spectrum it frees up, along with the spectrum Sprint acquired when it bought Clearwire, to roll-out an LTE offering it calls Sprint Spark, as it will continue to deploy an LTE network. Sprint’s new CEO, Marcelo Claure, has said that he wants to leverage the spectrum in order to go back to the company’s roots of offering unlimited wireless plans.

Unfortunately, as is usually the case in situations such as this where a major network comes to an end, the same happens to most of the workforce associated with the project. Sprint has also announced that there will be major job cuts in its personnel, which numbers around 38,000.

Since June of this year, Sprint has been looking to strengthen and reinforce service innovations. That is why the nation’s number 3 carrier announced that it has struck a deal at that time to use the Smart Service Platform from ItsOn. The goal was to allow for the deployment of new networks, along with new mobile services. It seems that Sprint is continuing to forge ahead with its plans.