Armed With New Funding, Clearwire Looks to Further Expand 4G in 2010

By: Paula Bernier

It’s 2010, do you know where your 4G is?

If you’re Clearwire (News - Alert) -- or one of the company’s more than half million paying subscribers -- your 4G is in more than 30 markets, and growing.

Clearwire’s 4G network, as of early January, was available in 27 U.S. markets covering more than 30 million people. Those markets include Atlanta and Milledgeville, Ga.; Baltimore; Boise; Chicago; Las Vegas; Philadelphia; Charlotte, Raleigh, and Greensboro, N.C.; Honolulu and Maui, Hawaii; Seattle and Bellingham, Wash.; Portland and Salem Ore.; and Dallas/Ft. Worth, San Antonio, Austin, Abilene, Amarillo, Corpus Christi, Killeen/Temple, Lubbock, Midland/Odessa, Waco and Wichita Falls, Texas. The company also provides pre-WiMAX (News - Alert) communications services in 30 markets across the U.S., and a combination of other high-speed Internet and 4G services in five markets in Europe.

Among the markets scheduled to launch this year are Boston; Houston, Texas; New York; and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Verizon Wireless, the first major company expected to market with 4G (in its case, the LTE (News - Alert) version), is still currently targeting an initial launch of its 4G network in the late 2010 timeframe.

Meanwhile, Clearwire recently announced it had received $1.56 billion in new equity and refinanced $1.4 billion in debt to help fund its continued network expansion in 2010. The company expects to share more details of its build out plans for 2010, and possibly beyond, in its fourth quarter earnings call this month, according to Susan Johnston, Clearwire’s vice president of public relations.

The company sells its services via Clear.com, through CLEAR retail stores and authorized dealer locations in CLEAR markets, and at select retail outlets including Best Buy and RadioShack. Clearwire also sells its services wholesale through its investors Bright House, Comcast, Sprint (News - Alert) 4G and Time Warner Cable, which each offer, or plan to provide, the WiMAX-based services in their existing markets.

CLEAR, Clearwire’s own WiMAX-based 4G service, offers average mobile download speeds of 3mbps to 6mbps with bursts of more than 10mbps, and upload speeds of up to 1mbps, according to the company.

Mobile and residential plans are available by the day or by the month. Home Internet service plans start at $25 per month. Mobile Internet starts at $35 per month, or as low as $30 per month for those customers that sign-up up online. Day passes are available for $10.

The company also offers service bundles. Plans with home and mobile, or mobile and mobile Internet start at $55. And a dual-mode 4G/3G plan sells for $70 per month with a two-year service agreement.

For residential service, Clearwire offers a Motorola (News - Alert) modem, which sells $69.99 and is available for lease at $4.99 monthly. Residential customers can add in-home voice service by purchasing a $15 adapter, and $25-per-month unlimited local and long-distance service.

Mobile users, meanwhile, use CLEAR’s mobile WiMAX-enabled USB modem into their laptop to get online. The Motorola modem is available for $49.99 or can be leased for $4.99 per month. A dual-model 4G/3G modem is available for $5.99 per month for those customers who travel.

Various CLEAR-compatible WiMAX laptops, based on Intel Centrino 2 processor technology, also are now available directly from their manufacturers and through other channels. Dell (News - Alert) offers the Latitude E4300, Latitude E6400, Latitude E6400 ATG, Latitude E6500, Precision M2400, Precision M4400, Studio XPS 1640, Studio 1737, Vostro 1720, Vostro 1520 and Vostro 1220. Fujitsu (News - Alert) sells the LifeBook P8020. Lenovo’s ThinkPad line includes the T400, X200, X200s, X301, T500 and W500. Samsung has the X460 notebook, NC10 netbook and Mondi mobile Internet device. And Toshiba (News - Alert) offers the Toshiba Satellite U505.

With the Clear Spot, a $139.99 portable, battery-powered router, meanwhile, users can create their own Wi-Fi hotspot wherever they are and connect to the mobile WiMAX network with any Wi-Fi device (up to eight of them, in fact) that’s compatible with 802.11b/g. IT

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