Sprint shutting down WiMAX by end of 2015

Sprint's WiMAX network isn't long for this world. The first "4G" network to launch in the United States, WiMAX was hampered by Sprint's available spectrum and shamed by the speeds brought on by the launch of LTE on Verizon and AT&T. Having thrown in the towel on WiMAX and rushed to launch their own LTE network, Sprint is now paving the way to shut down their old WiMAX network by the end of next year.

2015 will not only see Sprint flipping the WiMAX switch to off, it'll also mean that Sprint will be decommissioning at least 6,000 of their 55,000 towers in the process. In the meantime, Sprint is going to take their new combined assets with Clearwire and continue building out their new LTE-Advanced "Spark" network

Source: SEC; Via: FierceWireless

Derek Kessler

Derek Kessler is Special Projects Manager for Mobile Nations. He's been writing about tech since 2009, has far more phones than is considered humane, still carries a torch for Palm (the old one), and got a Tesla because it was the biggest gadget he could find. You can follow him on Twitter at @derekakessler.