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Google Merger with Sprint?

sikclown said:
Clear is getting their act together as well. They have the commitment from Sprint through 2012 worth about a Billion, they are adding infrastructure to current Clear cities, they are increasing their Wholesale business, Best Buy is picking them up, they are farming out Managed services to Ericsson to save cash, etc. Yes they are currently losing money, partly because they should not have attempted retail, but they have good things in the works. Even their stock price is up like 5%. The deal with Sprint handles the cash flow problem.
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Clear is probably the worst company I have ever done business with in my entire life. They are far from getting their act together, and deserve every bad thing that happens to them including bankruptcy. Peruse their forum for 30 seconds and you'll see how hated they are.

Sprint made a terrible mistake in getting in bed with Clear because they've tethered themselves very deeply to an organization that can only drag them down.

I have no idea what Sprint is going to do to fix the current situation, but getting unhitched from Clear's sinking ship should be a priority. It almost appears Clear is intentionally falling apart to force a buyout.

From Google's perspective, I can't see any good reason why they would want to directly inherit all the debts and pains of a multi-billion dollar cellular infrastructure. Sprint is viable, Clear is not, which in itself is going to be a pain to fix.

If I were Google, I'd buy a majority stake in Sprint, and liquidate all interests in Clear, phase out wimax over 4 years, and give Sprint the cash injection needed to roll out LTE without needing to outsource to anyone else.
 
viber said:
Clear is probably the worst company I have ever done business with in my entire life. They are far from getting their act together, and deserve every bad thing that happens to them including bankruptcy. Peruse their forum for 30 seconds and you'll see how hated they are.

Sprint made a terrible mistake in getting in bed with Clear because they've tethered themselves very deeply to an organization that can only drag them down.

I have no idea what Sprint is going to do to fix the current situation, but getting unhitched from Clear's sinking ship should be a priority. It almost appears Clear is intentionally falling apart to force a buyout.

From Google's perspective, I can't see any good reason why they would want to directly inherit all the debts and pains of a multi-billion dollar cellular infrastructure. Sprint is viable, Clear is not, which in itself is going to be a pain to fix.

If I were Google, I'd buy a majority stake in Sprint, and liquidate all interests in Clear, phase out wimax over 4 years, and give Sprint the cash injection needed to roll out LTE without needing to outsource to anyone else.
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They deserve every bad thing that happens to them? Did they kill your puppy or something?
 
sikclown said:
They deserve every bad thing that happens to them? Did they kill your puppy or something?
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When you do business with them, you really do feel like they are killing something. Just do business with them. I know you are a fanboy and have to mindless defend them, but really 5%? Oh, 22 cents. I guess that is something. But I really do have to point out one little thing. From this time last year they are down 45%, or 3.53 cents. Now if we go back 4 years, they are down from $32.50 a share to $4.50 a share. Do you really want to give me the percentage on that fall? The really funny thing is that is almost a mirror image of another company, let me think, what was it called, oh yea, sprint. For the last 4 years, sprint has fallen about the same rate as clear, wonder why that is? But heck, nothing it an island. Verizon has lost 6 dollars per share in the last 4 years. From 43 to 37 dollars a share. Att has lost 7 dollars a share from 38 to 31 dollars a share. Metropc lost only 10 dollars a share, from 28 dollars a share to 18. So yea, they put on a whole 5%, which is 22 cents a share. Congratulations, that prove beyond a doubt that Clear is in safe hands that have strong investor confidence. I mean it was $4.72 cents starting this week (may 11) and now it is only $4.49 (may 18), which is a decrease of what? 5% over the whole week, I see strong confidence in this company, I mean it fell 10%, but because it managed to bounce back up 5%, it is just a hiccup in the market, for like 4 straight years.
 
RiverOfIce said:
When you do business with them, you really do feel like they are killing something. Just do business with them. I know you are a fanboy and have to mindless defend them, but really 5%? Oh, 22 cents. I guess that is something. But I really do have to point out one little thing. From this time last year they are down 45%, or 3.53 cents. Now if we go back 4 years, they are down from $32.50 a share to $4.50 a share. Do you really want to give me the percentage on that fall? The really funny thing is that is almost a mirror image of another company, let me think, what was it called, oh yea, sprint. For the last 4 years, sprint has fallen about the same rate as clear, wonder why that is? But heck, nothing it an island. Verizon has lost 6 dollars per share in the last 4 years. From 43 to 37 dollars a share. Att has lost 7 dollars a share from 38 to 31 dollars a share. Metropc lost only 10 dollars a share, from 28 dollars a share to 18. So yea, they put on a whole 5%, which is 22 cents a share. Congratulations, that prove beyond a doubt that Clear is in safe hands that have strong investor confidence. I mean it was $4.72 cents starting this week (may 11) and now it is only $4.49 (may 18), which is a decrease of what? 5% over the whole week, I see strong confidence in this company, I mean it fell 10%, but because it managed to bounce back up 5%, it is just a hiccup in the market, for like 4 straight years.
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I am nowhere near a Fanboy nor am I mindless. Watch your tone.
 
sikclown said:
I am nowhere near a Fanboy nor am I mindless. Watch your tone.
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Sorry, got a little carried away. You so carefully pointed out that they raised 5% today, with out stating how much that was or that they fell 10% in the same week. I saw it either as trolling, which I would never think you would do or mindless; that you did not fully think before you typed.
 
sikclown said:
They deserve every bad thing that happens to them? Did they kill your puppy or something?
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Ever take a second to read the feedback on Clear's own forum? They are short on praise with good reason.

Their business practices are certainly unethical and border on criminal as far as I am concerned due to their ponzi scheme approach to service delivery.

They are a truly disgusting organization, and it irks me that Sprint has gotten into bed with them.
 
viber said:
Ever take a second to read the feedback on Clear's own forum? They are short on praise with good reason.

Their business practices are certainly unethical and border on criminal as far as I am concerned due to their ponzi scheme approach to service delivery.

They are a truly disgusting organization, and it irks me that Sprint has gotten into bed with them.
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We did look into your issue and you are correct you are being affected by the system. During times of high network utilization our network management system may limit speeds, but we never limit the amount of data a customer with an unlimited data plan may use. The system is used to ensure that our heaviest data users don’t negatively impact the service quality for others during periods of high network utilization. If you have any further questions please contact us by chat or phone.
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http://forums.clear.com/clearcom/topics/clearly_throttling_my_bandwidth

This is just too funny, just made me laugh soo hard, I had to run to the bathroom.

They should never have to throttle, ever.
 
I think the biggest problem Sprint has right now is they are not publicly disclosing their roadmap ( network upgrades, 4g) like ATT, Tmobile and VZW. We know as consumers that ATT and VZW are building a 4g network and what the future holds (ATT HSPA+ then LTE, VZW LTE, TMO HSPA+). With Sprint they have been very quiet, when they do talk they continue to say Wimax is their future but then you read all the issues with Clear . Then every now and then a rumor sneaks through or someone analyzes what Hesse says and says ok maybe LTE is their future.....however that most likely will not take place until the iDEN network is shut down which isnt for another 18-24 months. So for consumers that is discouraging to not be able to see a clear road map. Right now ATT has a very competitive plan (450 w roll over, unlimited m to any m, 2gb data). Sprints future is going to an interesting topic, Dan Hesse has done a great job turning the ship around now we'll see what the future holds for them.
 
RiverOfIce said:
Sorry, got a little carried away. You so carefully pointed out that they raised 5% today, with out stating how much that was or that they fell 10% in the same week. I saw it either as trolling, which I would never think you would do or mindless; that you did not fully think before you typed.
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Yes you are correct I did not research the stock price prior to typing the 5%, it was an after thought not carefully pointed out.
 
viber said:
Ever take a second to read the feedback on Clear's own forum? They are short on praise with good reason.

Their business practices are certainly unethical and border on criminal as far as I am concerned due to their ponzi scheme approach to service delivery.

They are a truly disgusting organization, and it irks me that Sprint has gotten into bed with them.
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I am not being sarcastic here.... what are these business practices? How is it a ponzi scheme? I ask because you obviously have experience with them. I can go through most companies forums and they are filled with bad experiences (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Cox, Comcast, etc) so I am not going to read every post but for the most part people satisfied with their service don't really post in support forums often. Again this is why I am asking you what they have done. Contrary to belief I am not a Fanboy and could care less about Clear as a company except in so far as it affects my current cell provider which is Sprint. That and I do hope WiMax can succeed.
All I am saying is that the moves that Clear has made in the past month or two have been moving in the right direction to attempt to right the ship. And that Sprint has gained ground in several areas that have the ship moving towards success (At-mobile merger would be a devastating blow). And my original point was that I didn't feel like Google needed to get into the Telecom game and that it would kill them in the long run.
 
sikclown said:
I am not being sarcastic here.... what are these business practices? How is it a ponzi scheme? I ask because you obviously have experience with them.
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Very simply, they throttle the hell out of you, which makes it impossible to use the internet. Clear thinks people only use 2 gigs a month of bandwidth. That isn't even one netflix film. Yet they advertise the ability to watch films, play games, videos, music, etc etc etc.

So what do they do? They give new customers full bandwidth to do whatever they want the first trial month. After the period of no obligation cancellation passes, they throttle you down to about .20mb, making the product completely unusable.

Their answer to your problem is "Use the internet less, or use it between 2am and 7am". Read their forums and you'll see their canned response. They claim to sell unlimited internet, but by default you are limiting internet if you make the product unusable. That is the very definition of false advertising and using the fine print to justify shady business practices.

Ask them how much before you get throttled? No answer.
Ask them when the throttling will stop? No answer
Ask them what is regarded as acceptable usage? No answer

They are intentionally vague to screw you over.

You eventually end up canceling because you get tired of sub dial up speeds. However, they've gotten several months of money from you but failed to provide the service they advertised, and then there is a cancellation fee.

This is the scam clear runs. Anyone that thinks I am making this up just needs to read Clear's forum.

Clear is a bad company with bad service, and Sprint made a terrible mistake in doing business with them.
 
viber said:
Very simply, they throttle the hell out of you, which makes it impossible to use the internet. Clear thinks people only use 2 gigs a month of bandwidth. That isn't even one netflix film. Yet they advertise the ability to watch films, play games, videos, music, etc etc etc.

So what do they do? They give new customers full bandwidth to do whatever they want the first trial month. After the period of no obligation cancellation passes, they throttle you down to about .20mb, making the product completely unusable.

Their answer to your problem is "Use the internet less, or use it between 2am and 7am". Read their forums and you'll see their canned response. They claim to sell unlimited internet, but by default you are limiting internet if you make the product unusable. That is the very definition of false advertising and using the fine print to justify shady business practices.

Ask them how much before you get throttled? No answer.
Ask them when the throttling will stop? No answer
Ask them what is regarded as acceptable usage? No answer

They are intentionally vague to screw you over.

You eventually end up canceling because you get tired of sub dial up speeds. However, they've gotten several months of money from you but failed to provide the service they advertised, and then there is a cancellation fee.

This is the scam clear runs. Anyone that thinks I am making this up just needs to read Clear's forum.

Clear is a bad company with bad service, and Sprint made a terrible mistake in doing business with them.
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I did spend a lot of time on the forums and wow. I see exactly what y'all are saying and understand the anger. Sprint needs to get them self in the position to step in and make some changes here, at the very least fire the top executives. The moves Clear is making now are too little too late.
 
RiverOfIce said:
Sorry, should have said, started to dump it clearwire stock. It only sold 10% and it was the class A stock. Honestly at 3.99 a share, I would cut bait too.
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Intel may have mitigated it's investment loss as of 5/20, price was 4.52 a share. Don't have the break-out of class A vs class B Intel sold, only as of, per Clearwire's annual report, pg 4. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/vprr/11/9999999997-11-010146

The ownership interests of Sprint the Investors and Eagle River in Clearwire as of December 31 2010 were as follows:

Sprint held 531,724,348 shares of Class B Common Stock representing approximately 53.9% of the voting power of Clearwire and an equivalent number of Clearwire Communications Class A Common Units

Google held 29,411,765 shares of Class A Common Stock representing approximately 3.0% of the voting power of Clearwire

Intel held 65,644,812 shares of Class B Common Stock an equivalent number of Clearwire Communications Class A Common Units and 36,666,666 previously purchased shares of Class A Common Stock with the shares of Class A and Class B Common Stock together representing approximately 10.3% of the voting power of Clearwire

Time Warner Cable held 46,404,782 shares of Class B Common Stock representing approximately 4.7% of the voting power of Clearwire and an equivalent number of Clearwire Communications Class A Common Units

Comcast held 88,504,132 shares of Class B Common Stock representing approximately 8.9% of the voting power of Clearwire and an equivalent number of Clearwire Communications Class A Common Units

Bright House held 8,474,440 shares of Class B Common Stock representing approximately 0.9% of the voting power of Clearwire and an equivalent number of Clearwire Communications Class A Common Units

Eagle River held 2,728,512 shares of Class B Common Stock and an equivalent number of Clearwire Communications Class A Common Units and 35,922,958 previously purchased shares of Class A Common Stock with the shares of Class A and Class B Common Stock together representing approximately 3.9% of the voting power of Clearwire.
 
jsward12 said:
I think the biggest problem Sprint has right now is they are not publicly disclosing their roadmap ( network upgrades, 4g) like ATT, Tmobile and VZW. We know as consumers that ATT and VZW are building a 4g network and what the future holds (ATT HSPA+ then LTE, VZW LTE, TMO HSPA+). With Sprint they have been very quiet, when they do talk they continue to say Wimax is their future but then you read all the issues with Clear . Then every now and then a rumor sneaks through or someone analyzes what Hesse says and says ok maybe LTE is their future.....however that most likely will not take place until the iDEN network is shut down which isnt for another 18-24 months. So for consumers that is discouraging to not be able to see a clear road map. Right now ATT has a very competitive plan (450 w roll over, unlimited m to any m, 2gb data). Sprints future is going to an interesting topic, Dan Hesse has done a great job turning the ship around now we'll see what the future holds for them.
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Quoting you this time so my post makes sense. :)

AT&T, Verizon, T-Mo..none offer unlimited ANY mobile to mobile. And AT&T does not bundle data with voice plans. You purchase it separately. What "plan" are you referring to that includes 2g data? The only part of the sentence in bold I see ringing true is the rollover. ;)

Then keep in mind you have to purchase a texting package in addition to a voice plan and a data plan. :rolleyes:

450 minutes $40
2 gig data $25
Unlimited texting $20

On paper, not bad..only $5 more than Sprint's 450 min Everything Data plan plus $10 premium data charge. (Does AT&T have a similar charge??)

But...with your Everything Data plan, it IS unlimited calling to ANY mobile phone, not just on your own network, it IS unlimited data, and unlimited texting is included. I generally use 500-600 minutes a month, but still stay well below my 450 due to the "any mobile to mobile" deal. So, for me, I'd have to go to the 900 minute plan for $60/mo, plus $20 texting plan, plus $45 for 4g data since I do go over 2g at times. $125 vs $80, assuming AT&T does not charge an additional fee for premium phones/data.

Maybe they have a "competitive" plan for someone else, but surely not for me!
 
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