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Federal regulators give approval for formation of new Clearwire
Sprint joint venture with Clearwire and investments from Google, Intel and cable companies cleared to form national WiMAX network provider.
United States federal regulators today gave Sprint Nextel the green light to
spin off and merge its XOHM mobile broadband network with that of Clearwire.
The XOHM brand is expected to remain as the new entity takes shape. A
Clearwire shareholder vote is planned for later this month.
In a unanimous 5-0 vote Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission approved
a plan to combine Sprint's mobile WiMAX network with Clearwire's pre-WiMAX
network. Google Inc., Intel Corp. and a group of cable companies are
contributing investors into the $14.6 billion venture, which will carry
Clearwire's name. The Department of Justice indicated that it will allow
the deal to proceed, but will continue to monitor it for anti-competitive
practices.
XOHM's first market, Baltimore, accepted its first revenue-bearing customers in
October. Washington D.C. and Chicago have been in market test for
several months with plans for customer readiness in the next seven weeks.
The cities of Boston and Dallas already have WiMAX base stations operating and
Baltimore customers can roam into these markets today.
Clearwire's contribution to the mobile WiMAX effort starts in Portland, Oregon.
The Portland sales team is being recruited currently and customers are
anticipated during the first couple weeks of 2009. Las Vegas, Atlanta and
Grand Rapids are the subsequent cities to go live in 2009. The company has
been hiring network planning and deployment personnel for Corpus Christi,
Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, Phoenix, San Antonio and San
Francisco in anticipation of additional mobile WiMAX markets. Existing
Clearwire markets operating proprietary multipoint radios from Motorola NextNet
will be converted to mobile WiMAX markets over time with dual networks operating
in the 2.5 GHz spectrum until the older networks can be turned down.
By Jeff Orr, ORR Technology, LLC
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A Momentous Week for the US: And not only for Obama
This week has been a momentous one in US history and not only for Obama. The FCC has taken two pathbreaking decisions this week which give a legup to WiMAX and mobile broadband in the country.
The FCC has permitted the use of White Spaces in the TV spectrum for Mobile Broadband services in another decision. The decision by FCC is indeed a key one for many reasons. First, the spectral resources can no longer be afford to be wasted, and white spaces deserve to be allotted to users. Second, the Sprint Nextel-Clearwire combine hold a bulk of WiMAX spectrum in the higher bands and the growth of WiMAX in US is now linked to the performance of these companies. Third, the lower bands of 700 Mhz are important for Mobile devices particularly as these are better suited for indoor penetration. Fourth, the mobile broadcasting will be a key area of growth and innovation and it will take more than the 3G technologies to deliver it.
In another major decision, the FCC has permitted Sprint to hive off its WiMAX to Clearwire to create the biggest WiMAX company worth $14.5 Billion. This will now clear the path for growth of WiMAX network across the US.
Both the decisions, coming in a week of historical changes in the US, signify a lot for the broadband users in the country. The months ahead will change the landscape of WiMAX broadcasting in the country as the key wireless technologies get enabled to enable America to keep its lead in innovative devices and services.
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