[Motorola Photon 4G] Draiko:
My take...

The US Government forced Sprint to do some rebanding in it's lower freq spectrum (Nextel was interfering with emergency service radio). This was a very ****ty situation. They needed to get new devices to over 50 million subs, shift all network traffic around, keep everyone happy, and they had a limited time to do it.

The WiMax strategy started out as a 5 year incremental network upgrade but eventually became a nice detour allowing them to steer data traffic off of their 800mhz and 1900 mhz bands in order to reorganize them. WiMax was cheaper than LTE and ready to go when they needed it. At best, it was going to give them first to market advantage on 4G, at worst, it was going to be a temporary detour for mobile data traffic and allow completion of their spectrum and network restructuring.

Everything was going to plan until 2008. Enter the recession and some Sprint-Clearwire infighting. WiMax as a viable network upgrade was probably not going to work. They needed a change of leadership and a better plan. Enter Hesse.

Hesse was pretty wise. After cleaning house at Sprint HQ, he went to work repairing Sprint's customer service and public image. He and his colleagues crafted a safer plan for WiMax and a brighter future for Sprint. He wrote off Nextel completely and started a plan to dramatically re-organize Sprint's entire network over 5 years. He was going to completely re-invent a company that was hemorrhaging money and packing a very bad reputation.

In 2009, he took extra precautions for WiMax's possible failure by spinning off all Xohm WiMax assets and operations into Clearwire. If it succeeded, Clearwire could move forward with WiMax and slowly migrate to LTE as a Sprint partner with the Network Vision plan. If it failed, Sprint would be insulated from any blowback and could recapture any needed spectrum from Clearwire for pennies on the dollar as payment for any outstanding debts to Sprint (since it is a majority stake holder and it pumped a little bit actual money into Clearwire). In an apocalyptic scenario, Clearwire could declare bankruptcy and Sprint would get all the spectrum it needed while not suffering any ill effects. Sprint would then incorporate that spectrum into the Network Vision plan.

Now, the rebanding is on it's final phase. The 1900 mhz spectrum has the 20-25 mhz A-G blocks available nationwide. Sprint is going to start by deploying LTE over the G-block and quickly expanding it to the entire A-G slice. They'll have a 10x10 LTE @1900 mhz (or TD-LTE... not sure yet). It'll be a good medium range/medium penetration network with speeds in the 10-30 mbps range.

Then, once that is done, they'll deploy a 5x5 LTE network on their newly reorganized 800 mhz spectrum for 5-10 mbps speeds with long-range coverage and aggressive building penetration.

The next bit is where the 2.5+ Ghz spectrum comes into play. Clearwire deployed a 2x2 LTE test network in Arizona late last year. Their tests hit average speeds of 50 mbps and peak speeds of 90.1 mbps (twice the speed of Verizon's 2010 LTE test network).

The 2.5+ Ghz LTE network will allow for super-fast speeds but will have short range and bad building penetration (same freq as the current WiMax deployment).

Then there's Lightsquared's 1600 mhz spectrum that may be approved later on.

Where will Sprint and Clearwire get the extra $3.5 billion it needs? A full year of iPhone sales and/or selling off some of Clearwire's massive spectrum holdings since (I believe) they'd need less than half of it for the Network Vision plan.

Also, since Verizon was pushed into deploying LTE a little earlier than expected and AT&T is starting to deploy their LTE network, the cost of LTE hardware has already scaled down a little for Sprint's deployment.

My take on the end result?

A Sprint network that's almost completely LTE with a tri-layered structure;

1. 2.5+ Ghz short range super high speed and high traffic layer for large metro areas and concentrated bursts of fast speeds when users are closer to towers (almost full - full bars).

2. 1900 mhz (and possibly Lightsquared's 1600 mhz in the future) for medium range 10-30 mbps speeds (3-4 bars).

3. 800 mhz for long range and high penetration 5-12 mbps speeds (0-2 bars)

Keep in mind that Verizon's ENTIRE 4G network is a 10x10 LTE running on ~20 mhz of 750 mhz spectrum (C-block). Sprint's 800 mhz spectrum will be almost as good as that for coverage and building penetration.

Does the Photon support LTE? I don't think so and I don't think you'd want it to. Sprint's LTE is going to come fast and hard. It'll be in your back yard in a comparative blink of an eye (Keep in mind that the current WiMax zones were fully deployed inside of a year and LTE is supposed to roll out NATIONWIDE in 2).

By the end of 2013, you're going to want to upgrade anyway.

I just hope Google and Moto will have another Photon 4G worldphone packing updated internals, better cams, a better screen, and all the features we love in our current Photons.

So. That's my outside perspective on the situation.