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Help 4g wimax end date

J

jaman29

Android Enthusiast
So originally I heard that Boost was going to keep Wimax going until 2015 and now I hear that it's phasing out at the end of this year. Has anyone heard this? How disappointing.
 
Yeah I know that. But originally they stated that we would have wimax until 2015 now they've changed their minds.
 
At this point it's difficult to say, since Softbank purchasing Sprint and Sprint purchasing ClearWire everything is up in the air, but by the time the merger and purchase go through it'll be at least 2014.
OB
 
Well for the price I paid for this phone 3 months ago I hope that I can get 4g for at least two years of owning the device. That's probably too much to ask though.
 
Agreed. I purchased based upon Wimax being available through 2015. If that is not true, that it's false advertisement.
 
^+1. I could of just bought a much cheaper 3g phone. That's what I'll be left with when 4g is gone. I was planning on keeping this phone 2 to 3 years. Regardless it's a good phone with a good camera. It's just gonna suck when I go to push the 4g icon and nothing happens.
 
I've never seen Virgin guaranteeing WiMax service through 2015, Sprints original contract with Clear expires this year, they originally planned for an additional 2 year extension, with their new plan to increase their holdings in Clear from 50% to full ownership so that they will have Clear's extensive spectrum portfolio to use for quicker and wider LTE coverage, WiMax might not be a very high priority. Look at how rapidly the Virgin/Boost WiMax handsets have dropped in price and you have a pretty good idea where things are headed, it's only been 7 months since WiMax was made available and now we have the option of LTE availability. This is a good thing, instead of 3 phones to choose from, with no newer versions ever going to be available, this at least gives us an upgrade path. :p
OB
 
I say who the hell cares.. most of us dont use wimax much anyway. I live in an area with 4g service but I barely use it. Because home work and school im on wifi. And when im on the move I turn 4g off because its kills your battery searching for it all the time.

I bought the S2 for the phones performance and hardware. It still tops all of the other phones they have to offer. The 2 lte phones coming dont have the specs the s2 has. I doubt they will be stopping our wimax b4 schedule. But I wont be hurt if they do either. Shoot most of the people with the phone cant even get 4g at all.

This is heresay. And before any of you get worked up we need to see evidence from a reliable source stating that they may be ending wimax early. Keyword "RELIABLE". Otherwise its not worth talking about
 
I never even considered the 4g when I purchased this phone. There is only one WiMax spot anywhere near me and that is across town. I got the phone for its specs and performance. I will be happy with my phone, and don't see myself getting another one anytime soon. The two LTE phones coming out just don't excite me. Now when they offer a S3, I might get excited.
 
I'm in a super strong wimax area. There is wimax all around me for at least an hour every direction. But sprint currently does not have lte in my area. Those phones don't excite me either. Now If boost got the S3 or the HTC Evo 4g lte I would switch right away even if there is no lte here.
 
I pretty much feel the same as SelfElevated. There's no 4G here anyway and I knew that when I got the s2. 99% of the time I'm at home on wifi anyway and when I'm not the 3g is perfectly acceptable for on the go stuff like price checks, googling something, etc.
 
I'm in a super good WiMAX area and is be sad to lose my 4G. If they release the S3 for $300 or less though, is be happier. We've got great LTE here as I've tested this with the One SV I got my fianc
 
I just went to a Boost store and asked the clerk when the wimax was getting turned off. She had never heard the word 'wimax', so she called a Boost representative (human) and asked him. He took the question and our area code and after making us wait 5 minutes (yes 5 minutes) he came back on the line saying "we're not turning it off". So the store clerk confirmed that wimax and lte were going to run "forever" and the Boost rep said yes.

So there's your update. Don't assume that Boost knows what Sprint is doing because according to Boost, wimax is not going away.
 
I just went to the Sprint store and the clerk said that he didn't believe that the wimax service was going to be discontinued but that it wasn't going to be expanded. He also said that he didn't have a lot of details. What is the truth?
 
Well you see the problem with your argument Codegerm is that what you posted was news well over a year old, whereas the current news as of december is that Sprint is trying to buy the other half of Clearwire. If Sprint owns all the WiMAX then they don't necessarily have to make a decision that jeopardizes pre-existing contracts (i.e. current Sprint 4G contracts, as well as those renewed by WiMAX phone owners who opt not to replace their handsets for any reason), because that would be rather expensive for them, wouldn't it? Sprint knows their customers don't really want contracts; the level of off-contract competition to genuine Sprint service is very high (no pun intended).

If Sprint is willing to pay billions to buy all the WiMAX then I don't see them discontinuing service early. Even if they do decide to cancel WiMAX in 2015, that's still plenty of time to develop 4G LTE modems for existing WiMAX phones. Sprint better take care of their customers, the real question is what exactly is Boost going to do? The official answer I was given by a Boost Mobile Human is that WiMAX service is not getting turned off.
 
I see them buying it just to get a hold of clearwire's frequency bandwidth licenses. They can then dismantle it and repurpose the frequencies to a different use. I doubt Sprint would discontinue WiMAX before 2014 anyways as they were still selling WiMax phones with 2year contracts at the end of 2012.
 
According to Stephen Lawson, when Sprint bought Nextel in 2005 they pledged to keep iDEN running until 2007. It's 2013 now and Sprint is just barely about to turn off iDEN. With Sprint's vision to restructure their network (pun intended), who know what they'll do for sure. I myself am not too worried about it. If WiMAX goes away and I still have a WiMAX-only phone, that will be the cost of saving money with a no-contract sublet-service carrier.
 
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