Comcast plans to launch its own mobile Internet service in Portland by midyear, reports today’s Oregonian. Comcast will be using Clearwire’s new mobile WiMAX network, now installed on some 377 cell sites around the Portland region. It covers some 700 square miles around Portland and is now available to a potential user population of nearly 1.7 million here.
According to the Oregonian story:
Comcast hopes to reach beyond the home, Chief Operating Officer Stephen Burke said today in an interview with The Oregonian.“We are very interested in being able to offer a wireless component to our products,” said Burke, who was in Portland to help launch a new marketing campaign.
Portland will be the first city in the nation where Comcast will offer WiMAX service, according to Burke. He said the company will buy the service wholesale from Clearwire and resell it under the Comcast brand name, likely bundled with Comcast’s cable TV, phone and home Internet services.
Comcast has invested $1 billion in Clearwire, with Time-Warner chipping in another $500 million and Intel another billion.
Clearwire launched their mobile WiMAX in Portland this January. Clear charges between $20 and $50 for monthly high-speed Web service, and provides Web access at download speeds up to 6 megabits per second. By comparison, Comcast’s home Internet service costs about $43 a month — $55 monthly for customers without cable TV — and offers downloads at 12 megabits per second.
Comcast hasn’t set prices for its WiMAX service and Clear hasn’t said what it’s charging its partners for wholesale access. But Clear’s documents (above) anticipate about half their subscriber base will come from wholesale partners (like Comcast and Time Warner). This month Clear’s management said their service will cover up to 120 million Americans across 80 Markets by 2010. Atlanta, Las Vegas, Chicago, Charlotte, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Honolulu, Philadelphia, and Seattle are among the cities going “Clear” in 2009.
According to Unstrung, Comcast’s senior VP for wireless and technology, Dave Williams, said in June 2008 that a key element of the Clearwire deal for Comcast is that 5 MHz of spectrum is set aside just for WiMax femtocell deployments. “If we build our own femtocell network we don’t have to pay for that. So, we have a vested interest in building out femtocells”, explained Williams. It’s not clear, however, whether tiny WiMAX transmitters will be part of Comcast’s Portland plan.
Samsung’s SCH-M830 WiMax phone and HTC’s WiMAX phone (with CDMA cellular service) could be options later this year.
Cablevision Systems, which does not have a piece of the current WiMAX action, says their public Wi-Fi mesh play in New York has contributed to a nearly unbelievable 70 percent growth in net subscriber additions for the quarter, a rate higher than any other cable operator in North America.
“Cablevision’s Optimum Wi-Fi service is rekindling interest in municipal WiFi applications among other large service providers, such as Comcast,” said Ben Kwan, analyst for wireless LAN research at Dell’Oro Group.
Related Dailywireless articles include; Cablevision WiFi: Subs Up 70%, WiMAX: Passive/Aggresive?, Clearwire Portland Launch: Jan 6th, Clearwire in Portland, Clearwire: Let’s be “Clear”, Green Light for New Clearwire, iPCS Withdraws Injuction Against Sprint WiMAX, Clearwire: Show Us the Money, Xohm Marks the Spot, Chicago Xohmed Next?, WiMAX Doomed? Not., Mobile WiMAX: Fast, Cheap and Out of Control?, Mobile WiMAX Cooking- But Still in the Kitchen, WiMAX Roundup, Australia Unwired, Australian Blowup, BT’s European WiMAX Plan, Backhaul Delays Xohm Rollout, Hesse on WiMAX, Sprint’s WiMAX Rollout?, Sprint-Clearwire Deal Dead, Sprint Considering WiMAX Spinoff?, Sprint Forces Forsee Out, WiMAX Demoed on Chicago River, The Launch, ICO Wants Its Mobile TV – via DVB-SH, Google Apps for Clearwire, Sprint WiMAX: It’s Called “Xohm”, Xohm “Partners”?, Death to WiMAX?, Verizon: It’s LTE, and Sprint: It’s WiMAX!
