Sprint, Clearwire Get Set to Merge

Thanks to the FCC’s approval, the clock is now really ticking forward on the Sprint-Clearwire merger that will create the “New” Clearwire and its nationwide WiMax network.

While we still need to see a Clearwire shareholder vote later this month, the number everyone wants to know — how many folks have signed up for Xohm services in Baltimore — is still unknown, since neither Sprint nor Clearwire reported any Xohm user numbers in their recent respective earnings calls.

There were some WiMax nuggets, however — one from Sprint’s report last Friday said that the company spent $134 million in capex on WiMax during the quarter, we are guessing probably not all in Baltimore but in some soon-to-launch markets as well.

On the Clearwire side, the company all but stopped promoting its previous “WiMax-like” service, signing up just 8,000 new subscribers during the most-recent quarter.  However, on the mobile WiMax side Clearwire said its Portland, Ore., network is ready for an “official” launch in Q1 2009 (though it will probably be working before the end of the calendar year) and that it also successfully tested the implementation of a mobile WiMax overlay in one of its previous technology markets.  Having lots of spectrum is what will let Clearwire upgrade its past markets to mobile WiMax without having to rip out the earlier technology.

Once the deal is done, the new Clearwire will be able to move forward with planning, marketing and deployment — we are still guessing (and it is just a guess) that there will be some big splash at CES 2009, with any luck on the mobile WiMax network Clearwire is building there.  Maybe it’s time for some snoopin’ and sniffin’ to see if the network is live yet.

Paul Kapustka
Sidecut Reports
 

Wednesday, November 12, 2008 in Deployments  | Permalink |  Comments (0)

Early Verdicts: WiMax Rocks!

With the New York Times and Businessweek both weighing in Thursday with highly favorable reviews of the Xohm WiMax service recently launched in Baltimore, it's a safe bet there are some happy folks at Sprint and Clearwire headquarters right now.

Though it's far from champagne-popping time, you couldn't ask for a better start to a marketing campaign than having a double-barreled pat on your back from two mainstream publications like the Times and Businessweek. BusinessWeek's tech columnist Stephen Wildstrom gave the service a test run (courtesy of a Lenovo laptop with WiMax embedded inside) and found it to his liking, especially the seamless handoff between cell sites while moving. You could call him the No. 1 WiMax fanboy after reading his conclusion:

"At launch, XOHM is providing faster service at lower cost than 3G networks, and it provides both mobile service and a rival to cable and phone companies for home Internet. That's enough of a reason for all of us to cheer for WiMAX."

(Somewhere, I see Barry West sipping a scotch and smiling.)

The Times' Bob Tedeschi also found the service to his liking, though some of his conclusions (that Wi-Fi will still dominate in rural markets -- maybe he hasn't heard that WiMax is actually making inroads in rural markets thanks to its lower cost of deployment) show that perhaps he could use a great report on the state of WiMax business in the U.S. Here's the money quote from the Times piece:

"When I visited Baltimore last week, Xohm operated at broadband speed no matter what kind of demands I put on it. I opened multiple browser windows, simultaneously streaming videos in each, without a hiccup. I ducked into alleys and hotel room corners and the connection still sped along nicely."

Reviews from the trade press were similarly enthusiastic, and in some cases with a lot more details to chew on. My favorite so far is from former colleague and Baltimore resident Nick Hoover, who is actually using WiMax as his "production network" as they say in the enterprise world -- running Voice over IP for work calls, and filing stories over the broadband link. The folks over at Computerworld also gave the network a test, with favorable results. The bottom line seems to be that Barry West and Co. did a fine job making sure the Baltimore network was up to snuff before releasing it to the public. Let's see how the track record goes when Xohm and WiMax open up in Chicago and D.C.

Need to know more about WiMax? Order our recently updated WiMax report, with full analysis of the "new" Clearwire deal and the motivations for investors Comcast, Google, Intel and others.


 

Monday, October 27, 2008 in Deployments  | Permalink |  Comments (1)

WiMax World: Xohm WiMax Test Drive

It’s really too bad that the Sprint folks couldn’t do a big launch of their Xohm WiMax network here in Chicago during this week’s WiMax World show, because it truly does deliver some impressive performance (at least as far as we could see in a limited test).

Riding in Clearwire’s tricked-out WiMaxMobile, we were accessing the Sprint Chicago Xohm network, which is set to launch imminently, according to Sprint senior VP Atish Gude.

It will probably be next week before we get around to posting some video highlights of our WiMax test drive, but during our short trip around the southern part of Chicago we watched live video on Hulu.com, made a Skype call to a pizza parlor (I was a little disappointed when my Clearwire hosts didn’t actually order a pie) and watched our position change dynamically on a Google Maps mashup application, among other fun things.  It’s hard to be a WiMax doubter when you see performance like this in action:

Hey, it’s fast enough to do a lot of things, including ordering some excellent analytical research!



We’ll have more thoughts from our WiMax World interviews next week.  In the meantime, check out our friend Mari Sibley’s video from the fine party the Motorola folks threw Tuesday night at the Museum of Science and Industry.  (Tried to steal one of the WiMax PC cards from the event, but was caught by the Moto PR team.  Bad Sidecut! Bad!)

Paul Kapustka
SideCut Reports

 

Thursday, October 02, 2008 in Deployments  | Permalink |  Comments (0)

The Sidecut Interview: Xohm President Barry West

As promised, here is our extended interview from last week's phone conversation with Xohm president Barry West, Sprint's point man on all things WiMax.

In this edited transcript West talks about three new markets where Sprint is already building tower sites, as well as the problems Apple's iPhone 3G users seem to be experiencing (which didn't surprise him).   West also talks about the progress in the Clearwire-Sprint WiMax merger, the devices in the Xohm pipeline and the new network's open architecture plans. 
 

Sidecut Reports: With the first Xohm launch scheduled for September in Baltimore, can you give us the state of the state of the network?

Barry West: We have more than 1,000 sites on air, a month ahead of our internal target date! It is actually 1,066 sites now.  And in typical fashion I am increasing the target.  But we are having a bit of an internal celebration today. 

Sidecut Reports: Are these sites in all the three announced markets [Baltimore, Chicago and Washington, D.C.]?

Barry West: We're actually working in more than three.  There's Boston, Philadelphia and Dallas/Fort Worth, we are working in all of those.  Half of the sites [built so far] are in Chicago, that is our most advanced build market. 

Sidecut Reports: It sounds like you have overcome the backhaul issues that delayed the initial planned launch. 

Barry West: Yes.  We recently did 25 sites in one day.  This is one of those logistics things [putting up sites].  When you get the funnel going, it really works for you. 

Sidecut Reports: Are you using Clearwire's microwave backhaul strategy?

Barry West: Yes.  When it comes to microwave [for backhaul], we like it too.  We are working together, as much as the FCC and DOJ allow us to work more closely.  We're very much on a common [infrastructure] plan.  And we liked their [microwave] application better than ours, so we switched. 

Sidecut Reports: Is there a hard launch date you can share with us?

Barry West: We're launching in September.  Right now we're going through a device and application testing list, and heavy testing of back-office systems.  We don't expect to have any reason not to launch.  The most important thing is that the [tower] sites are built.  For the Baltimore network -- I drove it last week, and we are seeing 3-to-5 Mbps speeds on the download.  That's on a small antenna, on a [PC] aircard in a laptop, so it's working very well. 

Sidecut Reports: Will that be the advertised speeds at launch?

Barry West: It's a pretty average speed for that network overall.  But it's also very important to set the right expectations with customers.  This is not a cellular network, not on day one.  It's really a hot spot the size of a city.  So we have a very good coverage prediction tool -- when people sign up for the service, we'll make them go through a process where they say where they're going to use the device.  It will tell them whether there's coverage there or not.  We never want the customer to be misled. 

You see a lot of quoted [wireless] data rates out there that look like they are for reception close to the cell tower, in non-loaded conditions.  The reality is, you're not going to get that.  On our network we have seen download speeds as fast as 11 Mbps, close to the towers.  But there's no point of telling people 11 Mbps, because in the end you are limited by the devices.  Again it's about setting realistic expectations. 

Sidecut Reports: Do the problems with Apple's iPhone 3G surprise you?

Barry West: I've been predicting that for a long time.  When you look at loading a network, it's very difficult to support the kind of apps that are on an iPhone.  It's a challenge.  So it wasn't a surprise to me that they would have problems.  I think 3G is really a tease technology -- when the conditions are optimal, it works really well.  But knowing you can only get it some times is really aggravating. 

Sidecut Reports: What devices will be ready for the September launch?

Barry West: We'll have in what we call category 1 -- meaning devices that we buy, and sell through our distribution -- a Zyxel modem, a ZTE modem, a ZTE USB card, and a Samsung aircard.  Very shortly after launch, we should see the Nokia [wimax tablet]. 

Sidecut Reports: There seemed to be a lot of device vendors backing WiMax at the recent Intel Developer Forum. 

Barry West: It was really nice to see the PC OEMs committed to embedding WiMax, including Dell.  We have north of 20 laptops [with embedded chips] going through our labs for testing.  We're very pleased how that's going.  Embedded is a good cost structure for us.  We're also working with getting Sprint's 3G/4G cards on the network -- we'll see those hopefully before the end of the year. 

Sidecut Reports: How are you getting along with the folks from Clearwire?

Barry West: We spent the whole day yesterday working on plans for next year.  It's amazing how quickly we've been able to get into a routine.  We are the new company -- we both bring complementary skill sets in.  For instance they have been in the marketplace for four years, and it's nice to leverage that learning. 

Sidecut Reports: What is the reception for the New Clearwire among the financial community?

Barry West: It's still a very tough market from a Wall Street standpoint.  When get to an analyst conference, you still can hear that the 700 MHz spectrum is better.  But what about if you don't have enough of it? Trying to explain that difference to financial types is difficult.  It's still not appreciated.  But now AT&T, they of course understand the value of spectrum. 

Sidecut Reports: Is there still a software developer program for your networks?

Barry West: Our business model is very open.  If they wanted to build applications [for the network], then Apple, Microsoft or Google could just do it.  Nokia is very proud of their brand, so they will be offering their own services.  We're encouraging that. 

If Vonage wanted to be higher on the QoS stack, we would help make that available even though it's a competing product.  It's significantly different that we have the ability to do that.  We've been working on the open architecture, trying to draw attention and partner with people.  The best thing for us is to drive a lot of traffic to this network as fast as we can. 

Sidecut Reports: Can you tell us the pricing plans yet?

Barry West: I can't tell you.  But we are printing collateral marketing material now.  It's pretty exciting.  There's lots of buzzing in the building. 

Tuesday, September 09, 2008 in Deployments  | Permalink |  Comments (2)

Boston, Philly, Dallas next for Sprint’s WiMAX

They’re whoopin’ it up at Sprint headquarters, as the Xohm WiMax folks there celebrate hitting an internal infrastructure deployment date well ahead of schedule.

A confident and happy Xohm president Barry West spoke with us by phone last Thursday afternoon for an update on the inaugural Xohm launch in Baltimore in September, as well as device, bandwidth and spectrum issues for both Sprint’s solo launches in 2008 and the expected merged operations in the New Clearwire for 2009.

According to West, the celebratory mood was due to the ops team getting its 1,000th WiMax base station “on the air” one full month before its internal target date. In addition to the Baltimore network, West said the number of live sites (now at 1,066) includes buildouts in Sprint’s two other previously announced 2008 launch markets of Chicago and Washington, D.C., as well as equipment being installed in Boston, Philadelphia and Dallas/Fort Worth.

While West did not divulge a launch timeframe for the new cities, he did confirm that Baltimore, D.C. and Chicago will all go live as most recently promised, with average download speeds of 3 to 5 Mbps in the network coverage areas. West also said that Sprint will have a small assortment of devices ready for the Baltimore launch, including modems from Zyxel and ZTE, as well as two devices for laptops, one a USB-attached device from ZTE and the other a PC card from Samsung. Nokia’s already announced Xohm-ready WiMax tablet, West said, should be available shortly after the Baltimore launch.
 

Nokia 810 WiMAX Tablet.

According to West, Sprint has solved just about all the problems it had faced earlier in getting the right amount of backhaul services to WiMax towers, in part by adopting some of the microwave-backhaul techniques of its imminent marriage partner Clearwire.

“It was one of those logistics things where when you get the funnel working, it really works for you,” said West about the backhaul backlog. West said Sprint’s tech teams recently added 25 live sites in a single day, supporting his belief that there will be no further delays in bringing WiMax to market.

We will have a more in-depth post covering our full conversation with Mr. West live in the next few days. In the meantime if you need to learn more about WiMax, you can order our Sidecut Report on WiMax, which provides an in-depth look at the technology and the “new” Clearwire deal.
 

Wednesday, September 03, 2008 in Deployments  | Permalink |  Comments (0)

Clearwire WiMax Demo Coming to S.F. CTIA Show

Mobile WiMAX demo confirmed at upcoming show.

We're not sure yet if the Intel sport-utes will be in the house, but we have confirmed that Clearwire will have a live, working Mobile WiMax demo during the upcoming CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment show in San Francisco, Sept. 10-12.
 

Intel demo at CTIA Las Vegas in April 2008

The mini-WiMax network demo should help kick off a big month for WiMax in the U.S., with the promised launch of Sprint's Xohm services in Baltimore and the big WiMax World show in Chicago at the end of the month.  With any luck we'll get some harder delivery dates and pricing news for both the new services as well as all the new  WiMax-enabled laptops and handheld devices, some of which were unveiled at the recent Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.

As we said in our previous Sidecut Report on WiMax, there's no better way to market WiMax than to show folks its capabilities working live.  (Such a demo sure convinced Comcast's Brian Roberts to part with a billion investment bucks.)  Side-by-side tests with an iPhone 3G, anyone?

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 in Business  | Permalink |  Comments (0)

New Report takes closer look at Clearwire's spectrum

A closer look at how the new company's 2.5Ghz spectrum holdings give it a strategic advantage in wireless broadband markets.

Ever since we put together our first Sidecut Report on WiMax and its comprehensive look at the impact of the New Clearwire deal on the U.S. market, we have been intrigued by the prospect of the 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings that Sprint and the old Clearwire brought to the table.

So instead of just wondering about it, we spent some time asking questions and came up with a new product, something we are calling a Sidecut QuickCut -- in this case a 12-page look at the New Clearwire's spectrum depth, and how it gives WiMax an unquestionable boost over other wireless data operations coming to the U.S. market.

Titled "Deep and Wide: Why New Clearwire's Spectrum Holdings Give WiMax a Boost in the U.S. Wireless Market 4G Deployment Race,"QuickCut" report takes a focused look at the role spectrum holdings play in wireless data services deployment for both Clearwire and its competitors in the so-called "4G" marketplace. Though the shorter form factor makes for a quicker read than our definitive 34-page full Sidecut Report on WiMax, there is still room to learn:

- Why having more spectrum depth means faster wireless services that are easier to deploy

- Why the 2.5 GHz frequency may be better at delivering wireless data than the highly touted 700 MHz band, especially in urban deployments

- Why the big telcos, AT&T and Verizon, are concerned about Clearwire's spectrum holdings

- How New Clearwire's spectrum holdings increase the chances for WiMax's successful entry into the U.S. broadband services marketplace

The QuickCut WiMax Spectrum Report now even has its own spiffy button in our rapidly growing list on the right hand side of this page. If you are reading this via RSS, you can order via immediate download by clicking on this link. More about this report soon, after we recover from launching two reports in a single week while staying up all night watching the Olympics.
 

Thursday, August 14, 2008 in Deployments  | Permalink |  Comments (0)

AT&T Attempts to Stall Sprint-Clearwire Deal

While politely suggesting that AT&T "does not fundamentally oppose the underlying transaction," the big telco nevertheless accuses Clearwire of not accurately disclosing the full amount of 2.5 GHz spectrum.

As we predicted in our Sidecut Report on WiMax, the "new" Clearwire deal, with its heavy-hitter lineup of investors and their $3.2 billion in capital, was sure to attract the attention of the big telcos, namely AT&T and Verizon. In our predictions we guessed that the big telcos would turn up the heat on Clearwire any way they could, and today it looks like we were right since AT&T just filed a rather lengthy complaint with the FCC, suggesting that Clearwire's merger application needs a bit more work.

While politely suggesting that AT&T "does not fundamentally oppose the underlying transaction," the big telco nevertheless accuses Clearwire of not accurately disclosing the full amount of 2.5 GHz spectrum it has access to, perhaps in an attempt to escape greater FCC scrutiny. Of the several complaints AT&T has, this seems to be the most worthy, especially since (as AT&T points out), other carriers (like itself) have been held to very strict spectrum accounting methods during mergers. As AT&T says:

While AT&T does not fundamentally oppose the underlying transactions, the regulatory process must be consistent for all providers, and the FCC must subject Sprint Nextel and Clearwire to the same standard under which it reviews all other carriers.

(What that really means: Hey Kevin, slow these guys down!)

Being somewhat cynical in nature, we had asked Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff specifically about the company's FCC filing in our recent interview with him, since it appeared even to our non-legal eyes that there was a mountain of spectrum-transfers that looked ripe for questioning. At that time, Wolff said "all the feedback we've gotten [on the FCC filing] is generally positive. There don't seem to be any concerns, nothing contentious." Wolff did say that Clearwire expected to have a "higher profile" with the new deal, and had always kept a significant presence in Washington to handle regulatory matters. "The wind is blowing in our direction," said Wolff about regulatory issues. "We can never be too lax, but we are on the right side of the story."

A quick parsing of some of the comments already filed on the proposed merger does find many in support of Clearwire's intentions, including WiMax provider DigitalBridge and Voice over IP provider Vonage. In an email reply, Clearwire spokesperson Susan Johnston added: "in detailed spreadsheets and text spanning more than 300 pages, Clearwire and Sprint documented all of their spectrum holdings in minute detail and described the myriad public interest benefits of the transaction. With this filing, the FCC has all of the data and information it requires to perform any competitive analysis it might find warranted."

Still, given AT&T's clout with the Kevin Martin-led FCC, it should be interesting to see if and how the commission reacts to the telco's complaint.

If there is any doubt that Clearwire might be a worthy competitor, it may make sense to read what both AT&T and Verizon have to say. In its complaint, AT&T offers the following statement:

In June 2008, Sprint Nextel Corporation and Clearwire Corporation filed at the Federal Communications Commission its application for merger approval. Our attached FCC filing shows that the combined company will become the largest holder of licensed and leased mobile spectrum of any other carrier, have a service that will be commercially available later this year, have financial backing from Google, Intel, and three of the nation's largest cable television companies and be fully capable of substantially impacting competition in the mobile communications market.

Verizon, in a filing regarding its proposed merger with Alltel, had this to say about Clearwire:

A new competitor will soon be entering the wireless broadband market. Sprint Nextel and Clearwire recently announced a deal with cable providers Time Warner, Comcast and Brighthouse, chipmaker Intel, and google, under which Sprint Nextel's and Clearwire's next generation wireless broadband businesses will be combined to form a new wireless communications company. The combined company will have access to an average of 150 MHz of spectrum in the top 100 markets and an average of 100 MHz in areas outside of the top 100 markets - making it the largest spectrum holder in the Unites States. The merger of ALLTEL and Verizon Wireless will enable Verizon Wireless to compete more effectively with this significant new player. The Clearwire venture plans to serve a substantial portion of the U.S. population by the end of 2009, and must be considered a strong entrant in the mobile marketplace.

Well, if they say so!

Need to know more about WiMax? Order our recently updated WiMax report, with full analysis of the "new" Clearwire deal and the motivations for investors Comcast, Google, Intel and others.




 

Sunday, July 27, 2008 in Deployments  | Permalink |  Comments (0)

Interview with Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff

Industry update on Clearwire regarding current and future WiMAX deployments and related business developments

Interview: Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff

Even though he's busy managing day-to-day operations for the "old" Clearwire as he also works on integration issues for the "new" Clearwire and its planned nationwide WiMax network, Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff still found time to talk to Sidecut Reports for a mid-summer update this week. In this edited transcript of our phone interview, Wolff talks about what is tops on his priority list, including Clearwire's coming launch of Mobile WiMax services in Portland, Ore., along with an ongoing process of educating Wall Street on how and why Clearwire's new services will be different from traditional cable, broadband or wireless offerings.

Sidecut Reports: Can you give us an update on where Clearwire stands right now? Does Clearwire have any access yet to the new investment capital, and have any integration efforts started with Sprint?

Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff: We won't get access to the new capital until the deal closes [expected in Q4 2008]. Until we're through with the FCC and DOJ processes, we can't coordinate activities. We can do some planning on what the company will look like after the closing.

Sidecut Reports: Where does that leave Clearwire for the rest of 2008?

Ben Wolff: We'll continue building out the markets we were going to build out in 2008 -- Portland, Ore., Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Grand Rapids, Mich. Sprint continues to do the same thing with the markets they were targeting [Baltimore, Chicago and Washington, D.C.]. The good thing is, they are different markets. What has become clear is that we and Sprint are building in a very similar architecture, in some cases using many of the same [infrastructure] vendors. So I don't imagine there will be much complexity in integrating [after the deal closes].

Sidecut Reports: Will your new markets use Mobile WiMax?

Ben Wolff: Yes.

Sidecut Reports: What about your plans to upgrade your existing networks to Mobile WiMax? Is anything happening there yet?

Ben Wolff: Physically, nothing is happening yet. It's certainly in the planning stages. Once we consolidate our spectrum with Sprint's, that will give us enough spectrum depth to do a WiMax overlay [in Clearwire's existing markets]. So we'll have the ability to share infrastructure and run our legacy network side by side with a Mobile WiMax network. In Seattle, for instance, we are currently using all the spectrum currently available to us. With Sprint's spectrum, it opens up the way for Mobile WiMax.

Sidecut Reports: What are your day to day responsibilities? It seems like there might be a split between running the "old" Clearwire and getting ready for the "new" Clearwire.

Ben Wolff: We need to continue to prove out the fact that this can be a profitable business, and that it can scale out. So I do pay close attention to operations and profits. I also spend a lot of time on the integration process -- thinking about what the team will look like when we're combined, getting all the things in place. We want to move toward Mobile WiMax and introduce the new Clearwire in one fell swoop.

Sidecut Reports: What about educating Wall Street analysts? How is that process going?

Ben Wolff: Education is important, especially in this financial climate. A lot of my job is to help Wall Street understand what is different -- what the services are, what the revenue model is. It doesn't fit into a neat convention or any one description.

Sidecut Reports: Is that a tough job?

Ben Wolff: Some analysts get it, and others just can't get their heads around it. Some of the cable industry analysts want to compare it to residential broadband, to pigeonhole it. I think it's a somewhat jaundiced view to say that if it doesn't offer video, it's going to be hard-pressed to get high enough ARPU. Then there are some wireless analysts who want to see only a national [coverage] footprint, all at once.

It's getting some [analysts] out of their comfort level. For our new network, the overall cost structure [for infrastructure] is a lot different, and so is the idea that spectrum is what makes the [WiMax] world go around. That is an awful lot for people to try to get their arms around.

Sidecut Reports: Does the popularity of the iPhone and its 3G launch help or hurt your efforts?

Ben Wolff: I think it will help significantly in the long run. When Steve Jobs got on stage and showed the 3G iPhone downloading a National Geographic web page, they made a big deal about how it only took 21 seconds. We went out on our Portland network, using a small-screen device, and downloaded the same page in four seconds. As great as the iPhone is with its wonderful user interface and applications, it's still dragged down by the speed of the network. It's a great precursor, because it's clear that customers want an Internet experience in their hand. What's next is a network that can really support it.

Sidecut Reports: What is your take on the growing publicity around LTE, the 4G choice for AT&T and Verizon?

Ben Wolff: I want to make it clear that Clearwire is not in a technology holy war. That said, WiMax is here today and it's our choice. But if you look at it closely, only the uplink [technology] of LTE is different from WiMax -- 85 percent of the DNA is the same. I think the real [question] is what spectrum you are going to use to deploy technology. LTE is mainly a frequency division duplex (FDD) technology, and if you look globally, there's not much FDD spectrum for use. What's really available is time division duplex (TDD), which WiMax uses. In most of our U.S. markets we have about 150 MHz of spectrum, versus the 22 MHz of spectrum Verizon got in the 700 MHz auctions.

So technology is only half the equation. You've got to have a pipe that's big enough. But really, the consumer doesn't care if it's LTE or WiMax. They just want a good experience at a good value.

Sidecut Reports: Speaking of value, can you talk at all about what WiMax pricing might look like?

Ben Wolff: We really can't talk about pricing yet, but I will say that we will be able to offer a better value than 3G because we can make bits move at a better cost. What we really want is to give consumers a variety of different services -- you'll have residential broadband plans at different speeds and bandwidth, you'll have day passes, and devices with [WiMax] chips embedded -- so it's hard to talk about what pricing is or will be.

Sidecut Reports: When will Clearwire offer those services?

Ben Wolff: We're going to go with Portland first, and learn from there. We are looking at a soft launch before the end of the year, say early fourth quarter. We'll see how that goes and then make a decision from a "grand opening" perspective and then make decisions about the other markets.

**************

In our recently revised report, titled "Game On, WiMax! Why the 'New' Clearwire gives WiMax its best chance at success in the U.S. marketplace," we take an in-depth look at the $3.2 billion blockbuster agreement between Sprint, Clearwire, Google, Comcast, Intel and Time Warner Cable, and how it may change the landscape for broadband deployment in the U.S. Prepared in an easy-to-read style with deep background material for those who may not have understood WIMax before, the 37-page report provides the most up-to-date look at the U.S. WiMax market available. A one-year subscription is $149.95, which provides the report as well as a year's worth of news flashes and report updates

Click here to order the report

Thursday, July 17, 2008 in Business | Deployments  | Permalink |  Comments (0)

Clearwire WiMax Gets September Start Date in U.S.

As I told a reporter here at the NXTcomm show, nothing beats proof of concept and the sooner the better for the New Clearwire as its battle against the still-under-development technology LTE gets underway

Well, we said it was Game On, WiMax, and now we know the when: According to Sprint/Clearwire WiMax guru Barry West, the "new" Clearwire network will officially launch this September in Baltimore, followed by Chicago and Washington D.C. in the fourth quarter.

As I told a reporter here at the NXTcomm show, nothing beats proof of concept and the sooner the better for the New Clearwire as its battle against the still-under-development technology LTE gets underway. More thoughts on WiMax when we get back from Viva Las Vegas and the resurgent NXTcomm show, which by all show-floor accounts was much more vibrant than last year's event in Chicago.

Need to know more about WiMax? Order our recently updated WiMax report, with full analysis of the "new" Clearwire deal and the motivations for investors Comcast, Google, Intel and others.

Article By: Paul Kapustka

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Sunday, June 22, 2008 in Deployments  | Permalink |  Comments (0)