Stacey Higginbotham of GigOm has an interview Mike Sievert, chief commercial officer at Clearwire.
Sievert said it cost Clearwire “somewhere in the mid-$20 range” per person to build out its WiMAX network, an estimate that relies on several things, from the cost of the spectrum to the number of the towers Clearwire needs to deploy. In contrast, analyst Chris King at investment bank Stifel Nicholas, has put the per-person cost near $20 for Verizon’s rival LTE network build.
But it’s once the network gets humming when Sievert believes Clearwire starts looking good, both because it will be cheaper to send bits across and enable the company to provide more capacity.
Sievert said the average subscriber downloads about 7 Gigs a month, and that he expects a WiMAX handset (rumored to be an HTC Supersonic), will be available this summer. A Verizon Wireless executive said their first 4G wireless handset could be available by mid-2011.
Unlimited home WiMAX plans start at $25 per month (768K). Verizon may not ever offer truly unlimited 6Mbps mobile for $50/month (like Clear). Verizon CTO Tony Melone says the days of all-you-can-eat data plans are ending. They don’t have the spectrum.
What makes “4G” networks different than “3G” networks? Simplicity. WiMAX networks are just big, flat, wireless router networks, explains Scott Richardson, Clearwire’s [then] Chief Strategy Officer (below).
Voice centric cellular systems, with endless synchronizing and networking layers, cost more and deliver less speed. LTE doesn’t mean much without spectrum. And it costs more. Richardson said 700MHz is prone to self-interference, and consequently will likely result in less coverage than anticipated
In other news, the FCC has announced it’s own speed test site at broadband.gov. DSL Reports says the FCC’s speed test is powered by two different platforms; Ookla (founded in part by former Speakeasy boss Mike Apgar) and the Network Diagnostic Tool, which runs on the Google-driven Measurement Lab (M-Lab) platform.
I’ve found the Ookla engine results (above) deliver significantly higher numbers then the M-Lab results (below). I ran the test 5-6 times and found similar disparities on each test. Don’t ask me why.
I ran the FCC test on my residential (6Mbps) Clearwire service in Portland, Oregon, about noon today. I have generally been happy with my $40/month broadband wireless service, although service disruptions this week have made me wary of adding VoIP in lieu of landline telephony.
The FCC also launched a broadband speed test for smartphones.
I’ve been using Clear since December, 2008. It now generally delivers residential speeds as advertised, although that wasn’t always the case in my downtown Portland location. Mobile speeds vary significantly (not unlike cellular service).
Related Dailywireless articles on Clear include; Clearwire in Portland, Clearwire’s Launch Party in Portland, WiMAX Speed Test in Portland – 10 Mbps, Clear Launches Mobile WiMAX in Las Vegas, Atlanta Gets Mobile WiMAX, Xohm Marks the Spot, Motorola Testing LTE in UK.
