This is the depth to which we've sunk. The regulators and the monopolists playing poker with air. Lovely.
Clearwire and Sprint are reportedly at loggerheads over the wholesale cost of WiMAX service for Sprint’s mobile devices. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse threatened to find another 4G network provider if Sprint and Clearwire couldn’t reach a resolution. Sprint is making its case for lower wholesale rates by saying it could go elsewhere for LTE spectrum. That somewhere else is Lightsquared.
The discussions between LightSquared and Sprint appear to be focused on a “network sharing agreement”, which would presumably allow both companies to save money on the costs of their network rollout/upgrades and share backhaul, reports Tim Farrar of TMF Associates.
Phi Beta Iota: This is an important article in part because it makes it so obvious that the US Government is selling public spectrum for next to nothing–so little in fact, that if each of 200 million Americans paid $20 each, the spectrum could remain–can this be real–public. The clash of mind-sets…. Speculating wildly, and mindful of CISCO's $30 billion in loose cash, one wonders what would happen if CISCO decided that this is an opportunity.
