MuniWireless

After a year of aggressive market launches across the U.S., Clearwire Corp. is becoming fairly well recognized for its pioneering use of the wireless broadband technology known as WiMAX, the “Wi-Fi on steroids” technology that allows providers like Clearwire to build “hotspots the size of a city.”

While WiMAX’s ability to provide broadband Internet access with cellular-like mobility is certainly the most recognizable attribute of Clearwire’s deployments, there is a lesser-known but just as important level of innovation taking place inside…

Apparently it’s no longer “premature” to break out mobile WiMAX subscriber numbers — at least now that there is an impressive number to talk about. According to its third-quarter financials press release, WiMAX provider Clearwire signed up 49,000 users for its new, mobile “4G” WiMAX service during the third fiscal quarter, a big, important leap from the embarrassing number of 12,000 net new adds for Q2.

Granted, Clearwire did have the helping hand of a lot of new markets in Q3…

When we heard Clearwire’s Hope Cochran was a no-show at last week’s Open Mobile Summit due to a last-minute trip to New York, we knew something was up — and since Cochran is Clearwire’s senior VP for finance and treasury, it (apparently) had something to do with money talks, specifically the kind that helps you keep building those costly consumer wireless networks.

On Sunday the Wall Street Journal was reporting that Sprint, Intel, Comcast and others will soon be investing another…

(Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from our WiMAX Business Deployment Guide, a FREE DOWNLOAD from our site. In this excerpt we present our executive summary, self explanatory below. Enjoy and download your copy today!)

Executive Summary — Portability may be why WiMAX Might Make Sense for your Business Broadband Needs

Business users evaluating WiMAX for their broadband and Internet-access needs may be surprised to find that the simple portability of the new services may be more useful, at least for…

Whenever we’ve talked about Clearwire’s pricing plans, we always have been guessing or waiting on the inevitable pricing promotions to goose the sign-up rate. C’mon, we said. This is a new service, and people need more of an incentive to give it a try.

Today in our email inbox was the first of what will likely be many such salvos from Clearwire: A 50 percent off offer, which reduces an entry-level unlimited mobile plan to $22.50 a month, albeit for just…

When WiMAX providers talk about the technology’s attributes, cellular-like mobility is usually near the top of the list. But for many business users WiMAX’s simple portability — the ability to pick up and move your broadband connection — may prove to be a more powerful economic and operational lure, the kind of money-saving, hassle-free attribute that gets CIOs interested and gets POs signed.

The power and potential attractiveness of WiMAX’s simple portability was one of the surprising themes we picked up…