Clearwire

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Clearwire

Type of Company	Private
Founded	October 2003
Founder	Craig McCaw
Headquarters	Kirkland, Washington
Website	clearwire.com

Clearwire is a wireless broadband Internet service provider (ISP) headquartered in Kirkland, Washington. Clearwire was founded by cellular phone pioneer Craig McCaw in October 2003. At present Clearwire offers service in more than 200 cities and towns in the United States, Republic of Ireland, Belgium, Denmark (with Danske Telecom) and Mexico (via MVSNet). Clearwire uses WiMAX wireless technology transmitted from mobile phone towers over licensed spectrum of 2.5 GHz in the U.S. and 3.5 GHz in Europe.

1 Services
2 Strategy
3 Growth
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Services

In the U.S. Clearwire offers plans with downlink speeds of either 768 K or 1.5 Mb, with uplink speed of 256K; 1Mb or 2Mb download / 256K upload in Ireland.^{[citation needed]} Clearwire also offers its own Voice over IP service in some areas for an additional monthly fee. As with any ISP, the listed transfer rates are under ideal conditions; actual results vary greatly depending on factors such as service load, distance, and obstacles between the transmitter and receiver.

[edit] Strategy

An attempt to break the traditional broadband duopoly of cable modems provided by cable television companies and DSL modems provided by phone companies, Clearwire is an independently owned and operated company. Like the voice over IP (VoIP) Internet telephone company Vonage, Clearwire has run rigorous advertising campaigns in an attempt to promote its service. Promotions have included airline tickets and low introductory rates offered to new customers with contract agreement.

[edit] Growth

Clearwire has grown from 1,000 customers in September of 2004 to more than 162,000 customers across its markets, as of September 2006. Clearwire claims as of September or 2006 that 20% of its markets have more than 10% penetration of households covered.

Clearwire took a $900 million infusion of capital from Intel and Motorola in July of 2006, shortly after pulling its IPO. Clearwire's equipment manufactuer Nextnet Wireless was sold to Motorola as part of the exchange. This investement by the two industry giants has been reported as an attempt to accelerate the development and deployment of WiMAX networks worldwide.