US telco Clearwire said on Thursday that it believes a new agreement with majority shareholder Sprint Nextel is imminent and that this will lead to increased revenues.
Announcing its Q4 2010 results, Clearwire said it had held a series of “productive…
US telco Clearwire said on Thursday that it believes a new agreement with majority shareholder Sprint Nextel is imminent and that this will lead to increased revenues.
Announcing its Q4 2010 results, Clearwire said it had held a series of “productive discussions about the outstanding wholesale pricing issues”.
It said: “While nothing has yet been finalised, the Company believes that an agreement with Sprint resolving those issues is imminent.”
Clearwire also reiterated its support for its retail distribution model, after reports earlier in February that it was planning to shift its sales focus away from retail customers to wholesale clients.
There have been reports that Clearwire and Sprint disagreed last year about wholesale charges for dual-mode WiMAX phones.
The statement was made amidst disappointing results for Clearwire.
The company posted a net loss of over US$128m for Q4 2010, up from a net loss of under US$99m for the same period last year.
The figures for customer numbers were more encouraging. Clearwire’s 4G network now reaches 119 million people. It finished 2010 with 4.4 million subscribers, compared to just 688,000 at the end of 2009.
In the growing battle for the US 4G market, Clearwire has been backing WiMAX technology, but faces fierce competition from its rival companies using LTE technology.
So far LTE has been the preferred option for US operators and has proved the cheaper service to roll out.
Aside from Sprint, Clearwire’s other investors include Bright House Networks, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Google and Intel.
