MuniWireless

“I believe that the biggest threat to the future of mobile in America is the looming spectrum crisis.” – FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, October 2009

Is the wireless world running out of available airwaves? From a certain perspective, it might seem that way. The struggles of AT&T’s attempts to keep its iPhone customers happy have become a national news story, and government officials are already working on plans to free up more wireless spectrum for use by mobile broadband providers, anticipating…

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…

With one month to go in 2009, we still haven’t heard anything official about those live Long Term Evolution (LTE) trials that Verizon is supposed to be conducting in Seattle and Boston before the end of the year. But from repeat visits to the Verizon LTE informational website we are now learning that if and when Verizon does actually launch commercial LTE services, you will probably have to pony up for a “hybrid” 3G/4G plan that offers benefits both for…

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…

The long wait for WiMAX in the Windy City as well as the DFW Metroplex is over — as we expected, Clearwire is now selling services in both cities, keeping with the company’s strategy of “soft launching” markets online before staging an “official” market opening with all the attendant hoopla.

Since it’s Nov. 1, time for a new map — and the one on the Clear.com website now shows Chicago “in the green” of Clearwire services, while adding Dallas/Fort Worth to…