Sprint Nextel and Clearwire announced changes to their long-term agreement that establishes new wholesale pricing terms and provides Clearwire a minimum of USD 1 billion from Sprint in 2011 and 2012. This includes minimum usage commitments for wholesale services on the Clearwire Wimax network of USD 300 million in 2011, USD 550 million in 2012 and USD 175 million in pre-payments for wholesale services to be used in 2011, 2012 and beyond. Sprint, which holds over 50 percent of Clearwire's shares, is already the operator's biggest customer. The companies also reached an agreement on wholesale pricing for Sprint devices that operate on both Sprint's 3G network and Clearwire's 4G network. This includes smartphones such as the HTC Evo 4G and Samsung Epic 4G and other dual-mode devices like the new Novatel Wireless MiFi 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot 4082. The agreement includes usage-based pricing and volume discounts and is aimed at aligning the interests of both companies to enable growth for customers using smartphones and dual-mode devices. The agreement also includes minimum payments per 4G device. Clearwire and Sprint also plan further collaboration to expand Sprint's capability to offer customized services using Wimax. This is expected to allow Sprint to better serve its target enterprise and government customers with wireless broadband both for mobility and local area network applications and expand its M2M services for large and small businesses. The agreement also expands the mutual re-wholesaling rights whereby both companies can resell the other's respective 3G and 4G networks to other parties.
