Comments on: Sprint gains control over Clearwire with stock buy

By: Tcom

Tcom — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:48:46 +0000

Jason, I’m not sure “poor” is a correct characterization. Lower frequency signals definitely penetrate buildings -better- than higher frequency signals, but that doesn’t make higher frequency networks “useless”. There are millions of people successfully placing calls and accessing data from inside buildings over “high frequency” PCS and AWS spectrum every day. Clearwire has millions of customers using their service – whatever its positives and negatives, Clearwire’s spectrum clearly isn’t useless.

By: BrianB

BrianB — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:43:40 +0000

Clearwire spectrum isn’t useless, but it has a different use than 700mhz spectrum. Compared to 700mhz, 2.5ghz is short range. A single 700mhz tower could cover a small town, but 2.5ghz might need 4 or 5 towers to cover the same city. That single 700mhz tower would be sharing capacity with the whole city (someone downloading a movie on their phone could slow the network down for everyone), with 2.5ghz each tower has the same amount of capabity as that one 700mhz tower.

For voice, 911, and rural service the 700mhz band is the way to go. In a dense urban setting 2.5ghz looks better. Building all those towers for 2.5ghz is expensive, but once built 2.5ghz provides a lot of capacity.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:27:38 +0000

mmmm I thought clearwire’s spectrum was pretty much useless because it was all in the such high frequency ranges such as 2.5Ghz? Doesn’t that spectrum have a poor building penetration ability?