dailywireless.org » Clearwire Launches in Portland, Oregon

Clearwire Launches in Portland, Oregon

Today marks the official launch of Clearwire mobile WiMAX in Portland, Oregon. It’s the 2nd major Mobile WiMAX rollout in the United States, after Sprint’s October rollout in Baltimore. Although Clearwire (now “Clear“) has several dozen pre-WiMAX cities, this is their first using Mobile WiMAX.

Intel, which has been testing the system in the region for nearly 18 months, is betting big on the WiMAX flavor of broadband wireless technology because it was more data-centric and had less royalty/operational overhead. It can be used in both licensed and unlicensed frequencies.

Intel has invested $1.6 billion in Clearwire and will rollout WiMax enabled Centrino 2 laptops. With WiMax built into a PC, there’s no need for external hardware.

Motorola base stations have been installed in nearly 300 Sprint cell sites in the region and the service has been available to the public since December 1, 2008 (when I signed up). Clearwire stores are open, area Malls have staffed kiosks, and sales tents are popping up on downtown sidewalks.

Clearwire shareholders agreed in November on the $3.2 billion merger with Google, Intel, Comcast, Time Warner and Sprint to build a new national high-speed wireless network.

Clearwire is facing off against giant telecom companies. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, virtually all the major cellular providers in the United States (except Sprint) have backed the incompatible LTE standard. LTE is expected to begin initial service in 2010 with major rollouts in 2011-2012.

The United States has some 260 million cellular subscibers. If just 10 percent of those users used LTE, that would be 26 million.

Sprint and Clearwire say their advantage is a lot of spectrum and a cost/effective infrastructure. WiMAX uses routers similar to inexpensive WiFi hotspots. The licensed spectrum, power and rugged protocol provides multi-megabit speeds — virtually anywhere.

While WiFi Metropolitan networks, like MetroFi and Earthlink, promised “free”, ad-supported networks, they proved to be unreliable and expensive. Municipal Wi-Fi networks were not free — they cost $65K-$100K per square mile to build, or around $10M to cover a 100 square mile city.

WiMAX, by comparison, can cover between 3 to 10 square miles from a single cell site. WiMAX, say proponents, is one tenth the cost of cellular or municipal WiFi and delivers better speeds. Cellular range with Wi-Fi speed. Twice the speed. Half the cost.

Intel will begin shipping its WiMAX/Wi-Fi 5050 PCI card ($50) later this year, which will enable WiMAX on Centrino 2 laptops. The Echo Peak module (left) shares MIMO antennas embedded in a laptop lid for both WiFi and WiMAX.

In Centrino 2 laptops, two versions of “Echo Peak” are available: 1×2 and 3×3 MIMO configurations. A 1×2 configuration in the 5150 (Echo Peak) module means one antenna is used for uploading, while two are used for downloading. Three antennas are utilized with the 5350 Echo Peak module for faster speed with longer range (but requiring more power). Taiwan-based network-equipment makers, including Asustek, Gemtek and Universal Scientific Industrial (USI), are likely to be the contract makers for the Echo Peak and Shirley Peak modules.

For UMPC and MID devices, Intel is utilizing its next-generation ultra-mobile platform – codenamed “Menlow”.

Sprint and Clearwire say their new WiMAX network will support both open access and wholesale access and will have far more spectrum than cellular providers — with over 100 MHz available in most large cities in the United States. That’s enough to deliver a triple play — data, voice and video — anywhere.

Clearwire projects 140 million people in the United States will be covered by their Mobile WiMAX system by the end of 2010 — and expects 4.6 million paying subscribers at that time.

If it works out, Intel may sell a lot of mobile device chipsets, Sprint would get a high speed network, cable operators could have their own (wholesale) wireless network, and Google could find a home on your mobile device, selling click-though ads with video chat and Google Maps.

Clearwire expects WiMAX will be built into cell phones later this year, perhaps displacing cell phone data plans with faster, cheaper Mobile WiMAX. The WiMAX Forum projects 133 million WiMAX users globally by 2012, with most of the growth in Asia and Europe.

What will happen is anyone’s guess. Whatever the outcome, it’s got the elements of good drama.

Location:
RiverPlace Hotel
1510 SW Harbor Way
Portland, OR 97201
Time:
10:00 AM – 1:00 PM PST
Event Agenda:
9:30 AM: Check-in begins
10:00 AM: Mobile WiMAX Presentations
- Ben Wolff, Clearwire chief executive officer
- Sean Maloney, Intel Corporation executive vice president, chief sales and marketing officer
- Scott Richardson, Clearwire chief strategy officer
10:45 AM: Mobile WiMAX demonstrations begin
11:00 AM: Hospitality at the RiverPlace Hotel begins
1:00 PM: Event concludes

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