Sprint, Clearwire Pitch a Vision of the 4G Future

At CTIA Las Vegas this week, Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse talked a great deal about how his company sees the transition to next-generation 4G wireless playing out — and about how he plans to make money from it.

For consumers and businesses, that entails a move to new models like paying for gigabytes of transmitted data, and away from minute-based mobile pricing. But there are potentially far more radical things in store if wireless data continues growing through the transition. And if Sprint and its partner, Clearwire, get their way, WiMAX will be the 4G technology underpinning most of these developments — probably. EnterpriseMobileToday takes a look.

Hesse didn’t waste any time reminding attendees of what he called Sprint Nextel’s “very strong spectrum position” and the fact that his company was the first of the major carriers to embrace 4G technologies and the WiMAX standard that it hopes will forever change the way consumers and businesses view their voice and data plans.

“Just as the economics of voice got better, with 4G we’re going to produce a gigabyte of video content cheaper and give it to people easier,” Hesse said. “Two years from now, the rate plans discussion will change from the number of minutes in a bucket or the number of text messages in your plan to how many gigabytes will be in your bucket. That will determine the pricing tiers and market segments.

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CTIA: Clearwire, 4G Mobile Network Take Center Stage