Clearwire

Clearwire - the American provider of services of wireless Internet access for consumers and the small companies providing communication by means of base stations and wireless modems.

Clearwire develops in the USA own system of wireless Internet access on WiMAX technology.

Subscriber base

According to official information, for December, 2012 Clearwire services 11 million subscribers 4G, and the network of the company covers the territory with the population of 130 million people. The company has the broadest spectrum for providing 4G-services in the USA, including thanks to purchase of frequencies from the second in value AT&T operator in 2007 and associations with Sprint network.

Performance Indicators

In the documents filed to Securities and Exchange Commission it is reported, during the first half of the year 2010 Clearwire suffered losses in the amount of $220 million at income in $229 million.

History

It is the only large American company which selected WiMAX as the main technology for construction of the 4G-network. Whereas other operators, including two largest players of the market of Verizon Wireless and AT&T, selected LTE.

In 2008 Sprint Nextel and Clearwire integrated the networks in order that it is more effective to fight for subscribers with Verizon Wireless and AT&T, however even 4 years later the companies did not manage to construct competitive business, noted the Bloomberg agency in 2012.

Among investors of Clearwire there was a Google corporation. Having purchased a share in 2008 afterwards the search giant got rid of it, having lost nearly $500 million.

2010: Conflict with Amdocs

In August, 2010 Clearwire announced that defects in the software of Amdocs (the developer became widely known in Russia thanks to huge projects in Svyazinvest) became the reason of transfer of start of a new system of customer service and billing for 2011.

It is stated in the documents filed by representatives of Clearwire to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the USA. According to representatives of Clearwire, because of problems with the software of Amdocs it should use own system at least one more year.

"Installation of our new systems of customer service and billing based on software of Amdocs faced unforeseen delays as a result of detection of defects in a program code of Amdocs. Because of these delays, start of systems was postponed and will take place in 2011. Delays led to additional, unplanned expenses of the company", said in the statement of Clearwire.

Clearwire signed the contract with Amdocs, one of the largest suppliers of complete solutions for the integrated customer relationship management, for a period of seven years. According to terms of agreement, the American operator only during the first half of 2010 paid $47.7 million for licensing and implementation of the Amdocs systems.

Earlier many clients of provider noted that the system of billing is one of the weakest points for Clearwire, both in the new markets, and on where the company already has a significant amount of subscribers. According to consumers, it is difficult to them to receive technical support from the staff of Clearwire or to cancel the service ordered earlier.

• According to the report of the company, in the second quarter 2010 it managed to increase the number of clients of the services of wireless access to Network to 127 thousand people. Total number of clients of Clearwire service reached 940 thousand.

2011

Sprint's Network Vision Creates 4G Choices. How Is Clearwire Affected? (Комментарии J.P. Morgan Securities 24.02.2011)

2012: The company is absorbed by Sprint

In December, 2012 the Sprint Nextel company, the third largest cellular operator of a subscriber base in the USA, announced signing of the binding agreement about purchase of 50% of stocks of Clearwire.

Within the concluded arrangements Sprint will pay shareholders of Clearwire $2.97 for each action (at the moment Sprint already owns 50% of the company). Transaction amount will be $2.2 billion.

The transaction estimates Clearwire at $10 billion, including debt and obligations for lease of frequencies ($5.5 billion), said in the official statement.

For December, 2012 Clearwire performs implementation of TDD-LTE technology. Among investors of Clearwire there is the world's largest producer of processors and chipsets of Intel which in 2004 invested about $1 billion in the company, intending to develop through joint efforts the WiMAX-solutions Pioneer of WiMAX^[1].

Notes