While AT&T (NYSE:T) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) belt it out over whose network is more widespread and reliable, Sprint’s (NYSE:S) latest round of advertising is playing the speed card. It announced a new marketing campaign today that centers on the much higher capacities its new 4G service can offer over 3G networks–including presumably its own.
Called ‘What can you do with 4G’, the campaign centers on the claim that Sprint’s 4G network–really Clearwire’s WiMax network–is 10 times faster than any 3G network out there. Starting with a new microsite and expanding into a national TV, print and Web advertising campaign featuring Sprint’s Overdrive 3G-4G mobile hotspot WiFi router. Sprint will also target local WiMax markets, using local print, radio, cinema ads and digital display platforms such as those found in taxi cabs, elevators and airports.
In a nutshell, Sprint wants to show people doing things they would normally do on a 3G network, but a lot faster: downloading music, streaming hi-rez video and gaming online. Since Sprint is still short on the 4G handset front, it will primarily feature the Overdrive as a means for customers to connect their WiFi enabled media and computing devices to the network.
No word yet on whether Sprint will go directly after AT&T and Verizon in its ad campaign, but considering the ferocity in which those two are going at it, Sprint might want to hold back. If AT&T is having problems defending itself from Verizon’s attacks over its 3G network coverage, Sprint is even more vulnerable. Partner Clearwire’s networks are only in 27 markets, and even though it plans a massive push into markets like Boston, New York and San Francisco this year, it will have only a third of the US population covered by year end.
But if Sprint did choose to attack its 3G competitors directly, it could get particularly nasty, for instance showing download speeds on an Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPod Touch compared to an iPhone over the AT&T 3G network.
The author failed to mention that Sprint owns 51% of Clearwire.
Actually, Sprint owns close to 57% of Clearwire now.