SPRWMX

A big question with this...how could they get this thing up and running so fast?

I had to look around a bit to find out, and apparently the initial rollout was ready to go in December, with all the equipment in place and a whole lot more on order.

http://telephonyonline.com/home/news/sprint_wimax_launch_121007/

"Sprint has 10,000 base station sites readied for deployment, (Sprint spokesman John) Polivka said, many of them cell sites for its existing CDMA network. In addition, Polivka said Sprint has orders in 1750 base stations from its three vendors as well as 20,000 antennas..."

So this looks pretty much ready to go if Sprint decides to move with it, whether Clearwire is in on it or not.

"This proposition will pay out at POP$100 if Sprint introduces WiMax service on or before April 31, 2008."

WTF does that mean? Is the soft launch of the service in various cities that was announced back in January enough to satisfy the criteria or does it need to be something more?

http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_002570DE00740E18002573CD00048CD3.html?ref=technology

"Soft launch" or not, it is still launched:

"Sprint announced a soft launch of its WiMAX services is underway in three major U.S. cities as a trial run to prepare the technology for wider launch later this year.
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More news from IDG

Xohm, which serves as Sprint's high-speed wireless Internet division, will begin offering mobile Internet business agreements for both Web portal services and WiMAX network access starting Tuesday, the company announced. The WiMAX mobile Internet services will be available in Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., the company says, with plans to have a broader commercial launch of the technology later this year. "

bikemessenger, can you give us a link to that article? I can't find anyhing on that.

Does the soft launch in a few cities satisfy the criteria of a national launch or not?

Can anyone say for sure? Like a moderator or something?

it doesn't seem to make sense, this stock is still falling and Intel just dumped $2 Billion into the project, does this seem counterintuitive?

I just did a google on this and looks like this is readdy to be launched...

According to some articles hardware has been ready for a while, but Sprint is still holding on the launch....

They are calling the initial cities a "Soft Launch"

What does that mean????????

Why is this prop going down.. isnt it obvious that thye are going to launch this by Aprill...

most media reports have said that this is happening by end of Aprill....

People riding waves as usual???

I just shorted 1000 with no reason but to make more money. Boy, I'm a greedy little kid.

I know we're against changing dates once a prop is running but the date on this one is STILL

April 31, 2008.

OK, everyone, say it with me:

Thirty days hath September...

Dang! Good eyes, Kahomono!
(by the way, what does your name mean?)

well if you think that's bad, look at ISHARE, that has an end date of Feb. 31st.

...means, in Japanese, what Americans mean when they say, "Lucky dog!"

By the way... not for nothin' but, Sprint just announced a Q4 loss of $29.5 Billion with a B. That's 2.95E10. In three months. How is that even POSSIBLE???

They had to because the Nextel was such a botch that was all the gains they were supposed to get by the merger. I was a Engineer for Sprint when I left voluntarily last year. It is a big mess there now I don't know how they are going to come out of it.
Buying Nextel was the biggest mistake they ever made, Sprint didn't know how bad off Nextel was till after they bought them, and they spent Billions trying to fix it. It was a huge mess.

Why in the world is the price dropping can anyone atleast explain this too me because I am in a quadary over this prop.....

Anyone actually have an article announcing a delay or is this wave riding as usual....

Sprint has suffered hugh losses. As dbsquared states, buying Nextel was a hugh mistake. The stock is way down. This would not be a good time to enter a new wireless market. I don't think Sprint will be rolling this offering out as a new service until they can get its house in order.

they dont have to do a National Launch......

They are planning to launch this in only a few cities as a test...

As i mentioned before ths "soft launch" would fulfill the prop....

...April, June, and November?

...April, June, and November?

Ugh... I'm still getting used to this new forum... I didn't see "page 2".

Anyway, "On or before April 31, 2008" would be open-ended... by the end of May, we'd still be waiting, right? So it's a given buy, unless they drop the idea altogether?

For now, it would be a buy

I think "on or before April 31, 2008" will have passed when April 2008 is passed. That would be May 1.

Did any of you read the Sprint earning call transcript that is now posted on the Internet? Dan Hesse, Sprint's new CEO of 2 months, gave a good talk. First he recognized the importance of Sprint's wireline business, that it is that business that is the foundation of the company. Further, the wireline business is moving closer to being an all IP network. In addition, Sprint now provides Multi Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) services to the retail level, they are only major carrier to do so. MPLS is vital for IP transport of video, voice, and data over a common IP network.

Unfortunately, Dan Hesse continued, Sprint has a lot of issues in the image, while they have the potential to deliver great services they have failed to do this. They deliver primarily voice, he admits they are behind the consumer. Sprint has not made wireless simple nor has Sprint let customers use today's highly capable wireless devices in a simple way for anything but voice in its most rudimentary function.

The WiMAX play is still part of the strategic mix of Sprint. Discussions continue with Clearwire to build a WiMAX services. Dan said more will be discussed regarding WiMAX at a later date.

It appears this is a company that has some great technology but it has not been able to bring this to the customer in a simple easy to use intergrated manner that provides the best set of features for the best price.

With the decline in stock value it is vital that Sprint take action, meaning how it spends its money, to improve those customer experiences in order to retain and grow its customer base. It is technically positioned well, but what good does that do if it is not ready for the customers?

I think Sprint wants this WiMAX service deployed, and the sooner the better, provided they take care of the core business and customer experience in order to shore up its customer base, only thing is how soon is soon? I suspect prior to May 2008 is optimistic. There is a lot of fundemental work required before going taking up a new service. Unless these fundementals are worked out the new service will carry the same fundemental flaws into that service as well.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/14/sprints-april-wimax-soft-launch-on-track-full-scale-deployment/

The payout clause has been updated to clarify the intent.

This proposition will pay out at POP$100 if Sprint introduces nationwide WiMax service on or before April 31, 2008? [UPDATE: This payout statement was clarified on March 19th to include the word “nationwide.”]

If you read the entire writeup on the prop, the spirit always implied a nationwide introduction was required. The following paragraph is unchanged:

A soft launch of the service, called Xohm, has recently gotten under way in Baltimore, Chicago and Washington, D.C., and Sprint expects to be serving 100 million people by the end of this year. Sprint's implementation of the tech has been slowed by failed business partnerships and top-level personnel shake-ups, but the company seems to be on track for a country-wide April launch. Will it stay on track?

By mentioning the soft launch in 3 cities was already underway, it should be clear an introduction in just those three cities wouldn't count for a long payout because the condition already existed when the IPO was written.

Anyone but me chuckle at the fact that they went in and corrected the terms of this prop, but still left it ending on the 31st day of a 30 day month?

What are you talking about???

Excellent point msholdenct, it's a clear short in my book.

This one is busted, a short for sure.

Check out the article at http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,143611-pg,1/article.html

At the bottom of the article is this bit:

"The soft launch of Xohm in Chicago and the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., area is under way, and the wide-area wireless network is still on track for a commercial launch in the second quarter, he (Ben Vos, vice president of core technologies at Sprint, in a speech at the VON.x conference Tuesday in San Jose, California) said. But Sprint is holding off until the first-quarter report to say how much it will invest and how widely the network will be rolled out this year."

Sprint's first quarter runs January through March. Then it usually takes corporations about a month before they file their quarterly reports with the SEC. And ONLY THEN will Sprint even "say how much it will invest and how widely the network will be rolled out this year".

So this will not be going national before the end of April.

Short short short.

Wow, it dropped about ten dollars per share today....pretty cool.

this is an interesting article. I don't know if it will have any impact on the prop but I think it should give the stock a bit of a boost.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/25/comcast-time-warner-sprint-and-clearwire-could-join-forces-on/

In the opening paragraph of that article it states "According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the companies are scrambling to get a deal wrapped up by CTIA -- which takes place at the beginning of April"

This prop ends at the end of April.

Do I think WiMAX will happen? Absolutely, but if these guys are "scrambling" to build a coalition, there's no way they're all organized and producing a WiMAX product 3 weeks later.

Leave it short, put a fork in it, Won't be NATIONAL by April 31st even if April actually had 31 days.

ejcassel

Totally agree ejcassel.

This proposition will pay out at POP$100 if Sprint introduces nationwide WiMax service on or before April 31, 2008? [UPDATE: This payout statement was clarified on March 19th to include the word “nationwide.”]
Too bad it wasn't clarified at the same time to remove the reference to the nonexistent date!

Thirty days hath September
April, June and November...

Pretty much the final nail in the coffin. This one will pay short.

http://www.cellular-news.com/story/30280.php

Oh, it's very dead.

"The carrier will miss the target of commercial availability in April, though not by much, said Barry West, CTO of Sprint and head of the Xohm business unit, in an interview at the CTIA Wireless trade show in Las Vegas Tuesday evening."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20080402/tc_infoworld/97227_1

Vulgarian is correct.

Also reported here that it's now a summer release, get SPRWMX short while you can.

http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/04/03/sprint.xohm.pushed.back/

Don't worry, they won't get around to halting it until May, paying out Mother's day. The absence of the offering will not be enough, they'll need "Official Confirmation". I guess that would mean the Voice of God From the Heavens...? Same thing we're waiuting for on BCTEST. Still.

There's no winning with some people. Whenever the admins wait for or try to obtain official confirmation, they get reamed by the folks that think they're going to slow. Whenever they pay it out without waiting, folks ream them out for that too.

Many people are quick to point out problems with the system. The users are also part of the system, and part of the problem.

i'm sure they will pay it out in may since it's supposed to end at the end of april. I doubt we'll have to wait until mother's day but i dont really see them paying it out before may.

It would be irresponsible to payout before May, since it ends April 30, 2008. They'll probably payout by May 6th at the latest, and that's not too bad.