Sprint quietly locks down Xohm WiMAX network while it awaits Clear takeover

By Tim Conneally | Published October 29, 2009, 10:12 PM

Without any notice to current customers with or those early adopters with dormant accounts, Sprint has locked down the Baltimore Xohm WiMAX network and is not letting inactive hardware be turned back on to allow free upgrades to Clear hardware.

Sprint's Xohm network was one of the first two WiMAX deployments in the United States. We watched with excitement as the towers were raised in Baltimore and the ceremonial ribbon was cut on the new high speed wireless network.

But not three months after Xohm debuted, Sprint and Clearwire agreed to merge their 4G wireless assets under the brand name "Clear," and the fate of the Xohm brand was sealed.

Since that time, Clearwire has rolled out new WiMAX networks in 14 markets, has made plans for networks in as many as 80 cities, while the lone Xohm network sat in wait for Clear to come in and take over.

It now appears that time is approaching, and Sprint has all but shut down its Xohm operations with no attempt to communicate this fact with early subscribers.

The activation of new accounts on the Xohm network was frozen four days ago. When you log into xohm.com, you get forwarded to the customer page, and if you click the "learn more" link, you're redirected back. All sales information has been removed, and when you try to click "about us" or "contact us," you're linked to a beta.xohm.com URL that is password protected.

If you log into the site with a user account, it still says "Do you have a XOHM device but no XOHM Service? If so, click on the 'Buy a New XOHM Service' button so we can activate your device and get you the service you need to start using the XOHM network."

But there is no button.

When Rob Wray of mp3car.com tried to re-activate some extra Xohm equipment on his currently active account, customer service representatives and managers refused to do so, and instead suggest he return the hardware to the vendors.

So customers who let their accounts lapse due to the uncertain future of the network or those who had an allotment of extra equipment for workforce deployments are out of luck with no sympathy from Sprint.

This is because new equipment will be required when Clear takes over the Xohm network at the beginning of 2010, and only customers with active equipment will be eligible for a free hardware upgrades.

Xohm equipment "might be compatible with the new Clearwire network...but probably not."

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Why in the world does anyone use Sprint? There is nothing Sprint has that makes it a compelling service provider over anyone else. Considering that Sprint is by far the worst service provider of the big four, you could probably get a walkie talkie at Walmart that works just as good as that uber expensive Sprint Nextel phone and get better phone service elsewhere. Even the iPhone experience on AT&T's network is considerably better than any experience you can get with Sprint.

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You're wrong about that. I've used AT&T and Sprint and Sprint is far better at coverage, call quality, lack of drops, 3G, and customer service. That's why I've been a Sprint customer for 9 years. I considered getting an iPhone until I tried AT&T's service and my first call on their network dropped 6 times in 10 minutes and the rest of the time wasn't much better.

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With all of the billing issues and customer service issues Sprint has put their customers through it's simply not worth getting service with them vs going with another company such as Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T. Seriously, canceling service because someone complains too much about Sprint's crappy network or billing practices? Or canceling a military person's service because they roam too much? Yes, Sprint fixed this last issue, but what about the lengthy interruption in service in the mean time? I can't believe that you or anyone else would call this service. Sprint Nextel almost exclusively uses an outsourced call center for their customer service called ACS. ACS's policy for their employees is to rush customers off the phone and keep call times as short as possible. I don't know of any other mobile phone company that treats their customers this way.

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I'm behind you Sprint. Keep that sweet 4G coming!

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Lousy customer service. Makes me less likely to ever use their service.

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