US WiMAX wholesaler Clearwire has cancelled plans to sell handsets under its own brand, according to media reports.
Bloomberg reported that Clearwire’s CEO, John Stanton, had said in a recent interview at the CTIA Conference that the company would rely…
US WiMAX wholesaler Clearwire has cancelled plans to sell handsets under its own brand, according to media reports.
Bloomberg reported that Clearwire’s CEO, John Stanton, had said in a recent interview at the CTIA Conference that the company would rely on using the handsets of its majority shareholder, Sprint Nextel.
Clearwire currently operates on a wholesale basis, selling access to 4G on its WiMAX network to other companies that then sell their own-brand handsets.
A Clearwire spokeswoman told TelecomFinance that there was nothing new in these reports.
She said that the company’s smartphone launches would be on hold “while we pace our retail expansion”.
She added: “I want to emphasise that our retail operations are an important component of our business model, and we expect retail to be an important cash contributor in 2011 with double-digit subscriber growth.”
The company’s Q4 2010 results were disappointing. They showed that an operating loss of over US$747m, a worse result than the loss of over US$417m it made in the same period in 2009.
Adjusted EBITDA also showed a loss, this time of over US$497m, up from the loss of more than US$295m in Q4 2009.
There have been reports since the start of the year that Clearwire is planning to raise funds by selling some of its spectrum. In February, T-Mobile USA was reported to have bid for the spectrum.
The Clearwire spokeswoman said that the company had started the process of selling “excess spectrum” in the second half of 2010 and that it had received multiple bids. The company expects to make a decision in Q2 2010.
She also said: “Clearwire continues to explore other sources of additional funding that will fuel the development and expansion of our 4G network”, adding that these could potentially include debt and equity financings, as well as the sale of assets (including spectrum).
