Clearwire 2.0 Renews WiMAX Push
May 7, 2008
It's official...Sprint Nextel and Clearwire are joining forces to create a new -- and, they hope, improved -- wireless broadband company under the Clearwire brand.
After a rocky partnership that was put on hold last November with the announcement that the two had ended their agreement to develop a nationwide WiMAX network, Sprint and Clearwire are once again on the WiMAX bandwagon together. And they're not alone.
The "new" Clearwire has help in the form of a $3.2 billion investment from Intel, Comcast, Google, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. According to the Associated Press, the deal is expected to close during the fourth quarter with Clearwire founder Craig McCaw serving as chairman and the chief execs of Sprint, Time Warner Cable and Comcast getting board seats. Clearwire's CEO is Benjamin Wolff and Sprint's CTO Barry West will serve as president (Sprint Nextel will have a 51% equity stake in the company).
AP reports that Clearwire's targeting 120 million to 140 million U.S. customers by the end of 2010.
UPDATE: Google, which contributed $500 million to the new venture and will partner to offer apps and services to Clearwire customers, has high hopes for its investment. In a post on the company blog this morning, Googler Larry Adler explains: "As we've supported open standards for spectrum and wireless handsets, we're especially excited that Clearwire intends to build and maintain a network that will embrace important openness features."
Tags:
broadband, Clearwire, Comcast, Google, Intel, Sprint, Time Warner, WiMAX, wireless
