Clearwire is readying WiMAX wireless deployments in four more US cities this year which will use equipment from Motorola, Jeff Orr, a senior analyst with the Maravedis told BetaNews.
“By the end of this year, we are poised to make service available in our first four WiMAX markets — Portland, OR; Las Vegas, NV; Atlanta, GA; and Grand Rapids, MI — with commercial launches taking place [in those four cities] in 2009,” confirmed a Clearwire spokesperson today, in an e-mail to BetaNews.
“I would like to emphasize that while Clearwire and Sprint announced a transaction to merge our WiMAX businesses, the deal is still pending approval. Until the transaction is closed, we will continue to operate as separate companies and therefore our networks are separate as well,” according to the spokesperson.“The mobile WiMAX technology continues to exceed our expectations. To date, more than 70 percent of our WiMAX sites for Portland are in construction or on air,” she said.
“We are building the WiMAX network in the three additional markets – Las Vegas, Grand Rapids, Atlanta – but we don’t have any beta trials under way [in those three cities] at this time.”
Unstrung talked to Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff recently, and asked him about the WiMAX overlay on existing networks.
He said that a lot of the infrastructure Clearwire has already developed with pre-WiMax, such as the towers and backhaul, can all be used in an 802.16e network build. It’s merely a matter of putting in a WiMax radio and antenna in some sites, he explained.
“We’ll have an overlay in some markets to maintain the pre-WiMax and build out the mobile WiMax and run them side by side,” said Wolff.
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Dailywireless helped create a temporary free WiFi using Clearwire’s Mobile WiMAX network last weekend. It was an unofficial deployment for the Waterfront Blues Festival. We borrowed a Clearwire modem from a beta tester. It was not officially sanctioned by the company.
Configuration was a breeze. We just turned on the unit and it “found” the nearest Clearwire transmitter. It was simple and fast, delivering some 2-4 Mbps in downtown Portland, even keeping a connection when the home CPE was on a seat in the car driving around the region.
Since it was unofficial, we didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. But it worked well for me, providing backhaul that was faster and easier to provision than DSL.
Clearwire says it wants to focus on the top 100 markets, filling coverage gaps with 3G. On paper, this would provide wireless broadband coverage for between 120 million and 140 million people and more than 200 million people beyond 2010. Clearwire CTO John Saw says the company can deploy its planned mobile WiMax network in the U.S. for far less than traditional cellular deployments thanks to its work on microwave backhaul and the use of a flat-IP architecture throughout its network. Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff says the company will launch later this year in Portland with some 300 basestations covering four counties. Some 70% are reportedly now activated for the Beta trial.
Sprint’s Xohm brand will launch Baltimore in September. Exchange Magazine interviewed CEOs Ben Wolff (Clearwire) and Barry West (Xohm).
The first certified implementation of mobile WiMAX has gone live in a deployment in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Idaho Falls, Idaho, from DigitalBridge Communications. The local tv station had an interesting story that ran their live camera through a laptop which connected (via WiFi) to the Alvarion client and to the television station.
Clearwire’s agreement in Grand Rapids is an unusual public/private partnership.
Clearwire will provide discounted service of $9.95 a month to up to 5 percent of the households in Grand Rapids for qualifying low-income citizens, and Clearwire will offer free Wi-Fi hot spots throughout the city for visitors and occasional users. It will even reimburse the city the $100,000 it spent on the due diligence process.
Ben Wolff, Clearwire’s co-CEO, told Seattle Times columnist Tricia Duryee that his company is definitely interested in working with municipalities.
With Portland’s MetroFi gone, you’d think city officials could do a deal. But Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman does not appear interested in bridging the digital divide — unless there’s a clear uprising among the disenfranchised.
