The CFO of US cellco Sprint Nextel has reportedly said that a decision has yet to be made on the financing of Clearwire, the struggling WiMAX operator in which Sprint holds a majority stake.
Sprint CFO Joe Euteneuer said that his company was currently…
The CFO of US cellco Sprint Nextel has reportedly said that a decision has yet to be made on the financing of Clearwire, the struggling WiMAX operator in which Sprint holds a majority stake.
Sprint CFO Joe Euteneuer said that his company was currently concentrating on its Network Vision programme, which aims to upgrade its network of base stations, reports Dow Jones.
Euteneur reportedly said that Clearwire had wasted money in its early operations and that the companies had been dealing with the wholesale prices dispute between Sprint and Clearwire, which lasted months and was only resolved recently.
The company’s Q1 results were disappointing, showing a net loss of almost US$227m, although subscribers rose to 6.15m subscribers.
While it has enough cash for this year, Clearwire needs to find additional funds for the roll-out of its WiMAX network.
It holds large amounts of lucrative spectrum, but CEO John Stanton reportedly said earlier in May that the company would not consider selling its spectrum in 2011.
In a statement accompanying its Q1 results, the company’s COO Erik Prusch said: “Looking ahead, we expect to work closely with Sprint and all of our other wholesale partners to expand our 4G leadership and capitalise on our rich spectrum holdings that enable us to meet the exploding customer demand for mobile broadband internet access.”
Clearwire announced last week that it would be outsourcing the day-to-day management of its network to the Swedish vendor Ericsson.
Sprint has a similar arrangement with the same vendor and Clearwire’s move prompted speculation that Clearwire could be moving towards a closer relationship with Sprint.
