Sidecut Reports

Having missed this week’s quarterly earnings call from Sprint, we checked in on the always-reliable Seeking Alpha transcript to see if Dan Hesse and crew had any kind words for their WiMAX efforts, via the network run by Clearwire. Though Sprint didn’t release any 4G subscriber numbers — as we’ve said before we think honesty (even if the count is low) is the best policy — Hesse did drop some foreshadowing that should make 2010 a busy year in terms of WiMAX market and device launches.

Here are a few 4G-related bon mots from Hesse’s remarks during the Q & A to pass on:

– a reiterated promise for a hybrid 3G/4G device that looks and feels like a phone, shipping in 2010

– new markets that cover roughly four times as many potential customers as the markets Clearwire and Sprint enabled during 2009

– continued no-data-limit contracts for the WiMAX part of any service equation

After saying that the WiMAX/3G phone would “make a big difference,” Hesse added:

So internally we call 2010 the year of 4G. It’s going to be the year that we’re the only game in town and it’s a combination of we need to get more markets turned up and we need to get a better device lineup and then we think we can really start to show some sizable progress in that regard.

We should hear more about markets when Clearwire reports its Q4 numbers Feb. 24. Publicly the company has said 2010 will see launches in San Francisco, New York, Boston, Houston and others… check back after the Mobile World Congress LTE love-fest to hear more about where you can find live 4G services, this year. And not LaTEr.

Thanks again to Seeking Alpha for the call transcript.

Reading this post at the usually reliable Engadget blog, we are pretty well convinced that a hybrid pocketspot might be the big news Sprint is teeing up next week at CES. Unlike some other folks, who seem convinced a WiMAX phone is in the offing, we’re much more bullish on the WiMAX/EVDO pocketspot (aka mobile router) product being a reality, in no small part because it’s an easier thing to build.

And after all.. the Sprint invite sent out to press and analysts in early December talked about the event being the “hottest spot in Vegas” or some such construction. Why go through such prosaic leaps if you were just announcing a phone? Sounds like a new pocketspot to us, an idea we thought about earlier this month. (Yes, we have been long early on both pocketspots and hybrid plans. Looks like that call was a good one.)

Whatever happens at the Sprint event next week, we’ll be there, and let you know when it happens… but we aren’t banking on using a WiMAX phone to make the call.

More vendor video fun… got the soundtrack from this slick presentation from Sprint humming through my head all afternoon. Got to love the need to “evergreen” these things… such as the video talking about 4G downloads “in our Chicago office” though commercial 4G service isn’t quite available in the Windy City… at least not this week

As with the other vendor videos, these are basically unpaid ads… but the production quality is pretty amazing, and it helps to see what the vendors are saying themselves about 4G. Anyway, enjoy.