The FCC approved the much-anticipated merger of Sprint's WiMAX division with Clearwire's on Tuesday, effectively creating a new company that will operate under Clearwire's name. It is a huge deal that also includes investments from Google and Intel and will put over $14 billion into WiMAX development.
The newly formed company will take over all of Sprint's WiMAX-related assets, including towers, base stations, spectrums, and frequencies. WiMAX service provided by the new company will be under the Clearwire brand, but the XOHM brand will still exist - it will operate as an MNVO Mobile Virtual Network Operator, a company who contracts with another provider to use their network and infrastructure to provide wireless service). In other words, Sprint is relinquishing the majority of their interest in WiMAX to the new Clearwire company with the exception of XOHM, which will continue to provide service to subscribers using Clearwire's network.
This begs a few questions, though. With the existence of two brands using the same network and infrastructure, what will the essential differences be? If a XOHM subscriber travels into an area covered not by XOHM but by Clearwire, will they be able to access the network? Will XOHM continue to expand at its current pace or will it be outshined by Clearwire?
For now, there are a lot of unknowns. If you use XOHM, you will obviously not see any difference in your service. Nothing has changed in terms of the network or your products. It is the future of the Clearwire and XOHM relationship that is in question.
