Un-Forsee'n blow to Wimax

IN A blow to the Wimax camp, one of its greatest champions – Gary Forsee – has been forced to step down as CEO at Sprint Nextel. The company was aiming to build a 4G network based on Wimax technology.

Although it is the States' third largest mobile network operator, with some 54 million subscribers, it is haemorrhaging them rather than adding new ones.

The company has said it expects a net loss of some 337,000 monthly subscribers in Q3 plus it also anticipates operating income to fall below the previously forecast range of $11-11.5 billion.

The main reason for Forsee's demise is the failure to integrate its Nextel acquisition into the Sprint Cdmaone based fold. In other words, those who like Nextel's Push-to-talk facility still can't migrate to a Sprint equivalent.

The biggest losers will almost certainly be Samsung, Intel and Motorola who were expecting to provide Sprint with Wimax gear. Sprint was intending to invest around $1billion in Wimax this year [2007] and a further $1.5 billion to $2 billion in 2008.

Now that Forsee has gone before he was pushed, the future roll out its 4G mobile network looks in doubt.

It's interesting that the acting CEO, Paul Saleh, comes from the Nextel side. That company was always admired for its high ARPUs [Average Revenue Per User].

The message from Forsee's demise seems clear. Offering advanced data services will paint the network as a technological leader. But in the end, people join a mobile network because they want to make reliable mobile phone calls. µ