Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Sprint's Dan Hesse: significant 4G plans to be announced this fall

We're here at Sprint's monolithic campus in Overland Park, and part of our day was spent speaking directly with CEO Dan Hesse. Amongst other things, the bigwig confessed that it had been awhile since his company (or Clearwire) had launched a 4G market. While Verizon Wireless has been pushing out LTE to new cities on what feels like a fortnightly basis, there's been nary a WiMAX deployment in the US during 2011. But that, friends, is gearing up to change. According to Hesse: "We're going to come out with a great story this fall around 4G, and it'll all become clear." He seemed curiously excited about whatever's around the bend, and Sprint's VP of Product Development, Fared Adib, seemed similarly giddy about the next few months. Neither of 'em would crack on what markets would be addressed or what tactics would be used to match rivals in terms of 4G reach, but whatever the case, we're guessing Sprint users will be a lot happier with their service once they get through the summertime blues.

Oh, and it's worth mentioning that Sprint's "not exclusive to WiMAX, nor the Clearwire relationship." Not a soul on the campus would talk details surrounding that rumored LightSquared investment, but judging by the smiles, it's at least on the table.