Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

Apr. 15, 2010

Leap Wireless said late yesterday that it is planning to refine its offerings, change the pricing on many of its plans and allow customer adoption to catch up with the company’s recent growth, while at the same time reduce operational complexity.

As of Dec. 31, 2009, the wireless carrier ended the year with about $552 million in cash and money market short-term deposits.

Leap Wireless is also planning to bolster its mobile handset lineup with additional 3G devices to take full advantage of its network as well as to tempt consumers looking for something beyond a traditional handset in the prepaid segment.

Meanwhile, the wireless carrier also announced new plans to launch Kyocera Wireless’ Zio smartphone later in 2010, which will be its first device powered by Google’s Android operating system, as well as to begin offering Research In Motion’s Blackberry Curve.

The company expects that about 45 percent of its handset portfolio will include 3G devices in mid-November 2010.

Additionally, Leap Wireless is to begin testing 4G technology later this year and should be a fast follower into that segment, but that it still needs to make sure the economies of such a build out are right from the get go.

An LTE deployment for Leap would basically require the carrier to build out a new network thus its desire to follow other wireless operators with similar plans, like Verizon Wireless and MetroPCS, and gaining any economies of scale it can gather.

But that doesn't mean that Leap is set to take the year off. The wireless carrier recently unveiled new pricing plans designed to take advantage of roaming agreements that expanded the carrier’s in-network, unlimited calling plans from 190 million potential customers covered to around 270 million pops covered.

Leap's new plans now offer unlimited nationwide calling plans starting at just $30 a month. The new plans also followed updates earlier this year instituted by rivals MetroPCS Communications and Sprint Nextel’s Boost Mobile division.

Consumer awareness of prepaid mobile services is growing. The wealth of marketing highlighting the space from a number of wireless carriers and operators that allows the overall prepaid market to grow even more.

Now, Leap says it is comfortable with its current spectrum position, which is in excess of 20 megahertz in most of its U.S. markets.

Perhaps the only market that could see some spectrum issues would be Chicago. Leap Wireless has only about 10 megahertz of spectrum there.

Overall, initial LTE deployments will require at least 10 megahertz of clean wireless spectrum for an efficient deployment, with most carriers looking to set aside closer to 20 megahertz to support higher consumer demand for higher-speed mobile data services.

Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

Source: Leap Wireless.