The CEO of US WiMAX wholesale provider Clearwire has said that the company will avoid raising more debt for as long as possible in order to avoid high interest rate costs, according to media reports. Reuters reported yesterday that Clearwire CEO John…
The CEO of US WiMAX wholesale provider Clearwire has said that the company will avoid raising more debt for as long as possible in order to avoid high interest rate costs, according to media reports.
Reuters reported yesterday that Clearwire CEO John Stanton told delegates at the CTIA conference that it would not be wise for the company to raise additional debt and that he noted the company’s current annual interest payment is US$480m.
Stanton reportedly said that Clearwire is looking to save cash until it reaches an anticipated break-even point in 2012.
Stanton also reportedly said that he was worried about the AT&T/T-Mobile USA deal announced on Sunday.
He reportedly said that AT&T and Verizon Wireless were formidable and brutal competitors. He also suggested that the US telecoms industry could start looking similar to its state in the 1980s before the break up of “Ma Bell”, when it was dominated by just a few large players.
On the issue of spectrum, Stanton reportedly argued that it was disingenuous to argue that AT&T was acquiring T-Mobile USA for its spectrum, as the latter was not spectrum-rich.
There have also been reports that Clearwire is considering selling spectrum to T-Mobile USA.
Back in early February, Bloomberg reported that T-Mobile USA was the sole bidder for Clearwire’s spectrum and that the deal was set to be closed in Q1 2011.
According to Bernstein Research figures published by AT&T, T-Mobile USA currently holds 1.49MHz for each of its subscribers, compared to 3.72 for Sprint/Clearwire and just 0.86 for AT&T.
T-Mobile has spectrum in the 1900MHz band for its GSM technology, as well as spectrum in the 1700/2100MHz band for its AWS technology.
Before the AT&T deal was announced, a T-Mobile spokesperson told TelecomFinance that the company “is growing into our AWS spectrum in the US and we have the headroom for additional growth”.
