Sprint and ClearWire have been partners for a while, with Sprint using ClearWire’s spectrum for their 4G WiMax service, Sprint has even been the majority owner in ClearWire. But today, the Kansas City-based Sprint announced that they are no longer the majority owner, as their holdings of ClearWire have dropped below 50%. This still doesn’t affect Sprint’s plans to use ClearWire spectrum for the LTE network, but it has become clear that Sprint isn’t relying solely on them for their next generation wireless network. With the decommissioning of their own iDen network towers, which will be converted for use with LTE by mid-2013, Sprint is preparing themselves to be self-reliant, in case Clearwire were to go under, which may or may not happen. But if ClearWire manages to stay afloat, Sprint will continue to use their network for its LTE build out, they just won’t do it as a majority owner like they were previously.
Source: Reuters