WiMax

Sprint Nextel posted a narrower third-quarter loss as customer growth improved ahead of the company getting the Apple iPhone.

The country's third-largest wireless provider reported a third-quarter loss of $301 million, or 10 cents a share, narrower than its year-earlier loss of $911 million, or 30 cents a share. Revenue rose 2 percent to $8.33 billion.

Wall Street analysts, on average, had expected the company to lose 22 cents a share on revenue of $8.38 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

More importantly, Sprint kept pace on its path to winning back its most valuable customers. The company … Read more

Sprint Nextel doesn't yet have its own 4G LTE network up and running, but that hasn't stopped it from already talking up plans for the next iteration of LTE.

The wireless provider said it plans to deploy LTE-Advanced technology after rolling out its LTE network next year, according to Fierce Wireless. Speaking at the 4G World conference in Chicago today, Iyad Tarazi, Sprint's vice president of network development and engineering, said it would occur in the first half of 2013.

LTE-Advanced is a faster version of LTE and what the International Telecommunications Union originally deemed a true … Read more

Clearwire released decent preliminary third-quarter results in an effort to show it still has some fight left in it.

Clearwire was likely under pressure to show something positive as it has been fighting the perception that its largest wholesale customer and shareholder, Sprint Nextel, was abandoning it. Clearwire's stock has been taken a beating since Friday, when Sprint unveiled its own 4G path, in which Clearwire played a minor role. Clearwire currently supplies Sprint with its 4G WiMax network.

"We view the announcement as favorable and believe the results should assuage near-term bankruptcy concerns for the company," … Read more

The number of 4G smartphones being shipped annually is expected to hit 245 million in 2016, compared with just 4.6 million last year, according to data out today from ABI Research.

Though tablets and other mobile gadgets will increasingly hop onto the 4G bandwagon, smartphones are likely to remain the dominant player as their shipments will far surpass those of other devices. As such, smartphones will pave the way for the design and technology choices of companies looking to provide 4G products and services, says ABI.

The battle for 4G supremacy also appears to be slowly winding down, with … Read more

Sprint Nextel said today it plans to aggressively roll out its own 4G LTE service next year as it looks to avoid falling behind in the network race.

Sprint plans to launch its next-generation network to cover 120 million people by the end of next year, and wrap up with coverage of 250 million people by the end of 2013. The company confirmed that 15 LTE devices will be available next year, with the first to launch by midsummer, CNET previously reported.

"There will be an aggressive rollout of LTE," Steve Elfman, head of network operations for Sprint, … Read more

Sprint Nextel plans to cover more than 120 million people with its own 4G LTE network by the end of 2012 and more than 250 million people a year later, CNET has learned.

In addition, Sprint said it expects to launch 15 LTE-compatible devices next year.

As previously reported by CNET, Sprint is building its own 4G LTE network, which will launch next year. The company has been relying on Clearwire to provide it with 4G WiMax technology, but has opted as well to go forward with its own 4G LTE path.

As part of Sprint's 4G lineup for … Read more

Apple's new iPhone apparently won't be paired with a speedier next-generation wireless network.

The upcoming smartphone won't have access to the Long-Term Evolution or WiMax 4G networks that are available in the U.S., according to the Dow Jones Newswires. That will likely come as a disappointment to many who were hoping that the device would wed Apple's software and experience with a much faster data connection.

Apple plans to unveil the device at 10 a.m. PT today.

That the iPhone will run on 3G speeds only isn't a huge surprise. Tim Cook, Apple'… Read more

Android phones seem to have cornered the market on 4G, according to a report out yesterday from Localytics.

Gazing at the smartphone landscape, the mobile analytics firm found that 37 percent of all Android phones are now 4G-enabled. That percentage is likely to surge even further as this year alone the number of 4G Android phones have jumped by more than 50 percent.

Of course, 4G is a fuzzy term that's often used loosely to describe any type of high-speed mobile access. For the purposes of its study, Localytics defines a 4G device as one that taps into LTE, … Read more

The company is already installing LTE equipment and has been field testing the network in select areas, according to people familiar with the situation. It hopes to launch commercial service by the end of the first quarter or beginning of the second quarter, although the target could move up. It's unclear how many markets would get the service initially.

The LTE rollout is part of the company's broader Network Vision plan. With the costs already accounted for in its prior forecast, the LTE network won't … Read more