Hesse began by giving an intro of Sprint's journey developing their 4G WiMAX network, including details about availability to customers. One of the bigger questions that Mossberg asked "Why are you using WiMax when the two other carriers are using LTE?" Hesse replied "back in 2008, we wanted to be first, and WiMax was available right now... Technically, there’s no difference. I can’t deny that LTE will be a bigger ecosystem, but we couldn’t wait. We thought the market was ready." This decision ultimately put them in the 4G lead with over 120 million covered by the end of 2010 and support for two 4G capable handsets the HTC EVO 4G and Samsung Epic 4G.
With Verizon finally launching their VZ4G LTE network in 38 markets on 12/5/2010, Verizon shocked the industry by placing the same 5GB/10GB tiered plans available on their 3G only MiFi 2200; in contrast, WiMAX operates like Sprint offer their 4G service on an unlimited basis. This move didn't make to much sense to the industry considering that LTE speeds are typically 10X faster than 3G and designed with video in mind. Walt asked Hesse "are you not going to do tiered pricing?", to which Hesse replied "So far, we aren’t... But Sprint did up the cost of the unlimited plans of the most capable devices on the network."
Decisions like this demonstrate Sprint's commitment to continue offering better value and services than their competitors. They've been hard at work and currently serve 4G WiMAX in 68 markets and are continuing to expand.
Click to read the entire Dive Into Mobile discussion at eMoney
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