Clearwire Corporation
(
CLWR
), which offers mobile and fixed wireless broadband communication,
services to retail and wholesale customers in the U.S. may defer
its TDD-LTE 4G network rollout plan as the company will loose
Comcast Corporation
(
CMCSA
), another major strategic partner from its board.
Major companies like Comcast Corporation,
Time Warner Cable Inc.
(
TWC
), Bright House Networks,
Sprint Nextel Corp.
(
S
),
Google Inc.
(
GOOG
) and
Intel Corporation
(
INTC
) own majority of shares of Clearwire with Sprint Nextel being the
largest shareholder with 48.1% stake.
However, in recent times most of its strategic partners like
Intel, Google and Time Warner Cable have already sold their
respective stake to Clearwire while Comcast will be the latest to
join the bandwagon by selling its 6% stake to the company.
Google and Time Warner Cable invested $500 and $550 million
respectively in 2008 but exited with $66.5 million and $73.3
million in 2012. Clearwire has formed a venture combining its
infrastructure together with the wireless network of Sprint to
install a nationwide mobile phone and broadband Internet network
using the 4G WiMAX technology. However, WiMAX gradually lost its
charm among the customers with the competitive 4G LTE technology
becoming more robust apart from offering faster downlink.
Consequently, Clearwire venture continues to become a loss
making unit. Moreover, in July 2012, Time Warner Cable, Comcast and
Bright House entered into an agreement with Verizon Wireless to
sell their respective AWS spectrums, which they bought in an
auction in 2006 and simultaneously these cable companies entered
into a reseller agreement with Verizon Wireless to receive 4GLTE
service for its subscribers, thereby reducing the need for a 4G
Wimax service from Clearwire.
In order to stay in the race, Clearwire plans to build its new
TDD-LTE 4G network by the beginning of 2013 and cover 5,000 LTE
footprints by first half of 2013. In addition to these, the company
will also receive a series of prepayments amounting $350 million
from Sprint over a two-year period if Clearwire meets certain LTE
deployment target by June 2013.
Despite loosing of major strategic partners during the course of
its new 4GLTE launch, such series of prepayments from Sprint
coupled with a huge cash base of $1.2 billion and availability of
huge wireless spectrum license will continue lend support to the
company to meet its future goal.
Currently, Clearwire has a Zacks#2 Rank, implying a short-term
Buy rating on the stock.
CLEARWIRE CORP (CLWR): Free Stock Analysis
Report
COMCAST CORP A (CMCSA): Free Stock Analysis
Report
GOOGLE INC-CL A (GOOG): Free Stock Analysis
Report
INTEL CORP (INTC): Free Stock Analysis Report
SPRINT NEXTEL (S): Free Stock Analysis Report
TIME WARNER CAB (TWC): Free Stock Analysis
Report
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
Zacks Investment
Research