Independent Clearwire Blog

Glenn Fleishman does a good review of the Motorola Expedience PC Card

From Good Evening, BWIA - Thursday in Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News:

I was impressed with Fleishman's pretty thorough review of the Expedience PC Card as used on Clearwire's Seattle-area Expedience network. I was surprised that Glenn reported no problems using it while actually mobile (street speeds, not freeway speeds). I know that Glenn knew better than to call Expedience "WiMAX", and he did a good job explaining that Expedience and Clearwire-to-date isn't WiMAX to his readers.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh except for specifically-marked excerpts. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).

By-now obligatory Clearwire Non-rumor of the day

From Good Day, BWIA - Wednesday in Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News:

McCaw Bets Again On Wireless Frontier, a front page article in the Wall Street Journal. I read it in hardcopy today, and Amol Sharma does a pretty fair job of deconstructing Clearwire. This mention in the first few paragraphs was interesting, confirming one key recent Clearwire / Sprint Nextel rumor: Last week, his plans on that front were dealt a blow. Sprint Nextel Corp., which is working on its own WiMax network, scrapped a preliminary agreement to join forces with Clearwire to build a national one. A separate plan to spin off Sprint's broadband unit and merge it with Clearwire was rejected by Sprint's board last week, people familiar with the situation say. The two companies are continuing to talk, these people say. Kudos to Sharma for doing his homework - this is the first "mainstream" story about Clearwire that mentions that the genesis of Clearwire was not McCaw, but rather an earlier incantation of Clearwire that McCaw aquired and resurrected. Further kudos to Sharma for making the connection between McCaw's "Project Angel" a decade ago, and Clearwire now.


By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh except for specifically-marked excerpts. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).

From Good Day, BWIA - Wednesday in Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News:

McCaw Bets Again On Wireless Frontier, a front page article in the Wall Street Journal. I read it in hardcopy today, and Amol Sharma does a pretty fair job of deconstructing Clearwire. This mention in the first few paragraphs was interesting, confirming one key recent Clearwire / Sprint Nextel rumor: Last week, his plans on that front were dealt a blow. Sprint Nextel Corp., which is working on its own WiMax network, scrapped a preliminary agreement to join forces with Clearwire to build a national one. A separate plan to spin off Sprint's broadband unit and merge it with Clearwire was rejected by Sprint's board last week, people familiar with the situation say. The two companies are continuing to talk, these people say. Kudos to Sharma for doing his homework - this is the first "mainstream" story about Clearwire that mentions that the genesis of Clearwire was not McCaw, but rather an earlier incantation of Clearwire that McCaw aquired and resurrected. Further kudos to Sharma for making the connection between McCaw's "Project Angel" a decade ago, and Clearwire now.


By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh except for specifically-marked excerpts. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).

By-now obligatory Clearwire Rumor of the day

From Good Day, BWIA - Wednesday in Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News:

Today's rumored acquirer? Comcast, according to Seattle Post Intelligencer writer John Cook... but citing no sources for this rumor. Imagine... all the efficiency and customer service of Comcast applied to wireless... fascinating to imagine.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh except for specifically-marked excerpts. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).

Reader Question

Excerpt from Good Day, BWIA - Monday on Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News:

Stafford Smith asked Wall Street sees the Sprint Nextel retreat from a joint Wimax network as big setback for Clearwire.  Do you agree? Yes, and No. Yes, that the Sprint Nextel / Clearwire agreement was a big win for Clearwire - they would have given them enormous benefit of their customers having roaming access to much bigger network coverage than what Clearwire could have done on their own - size of team that they can devote to building out network, finances, spectrum acquisition and footprint, etc. Not to mention that Clearwire would have been able to offer their customers nationwide wireless telephony service immediately via Sprint's existing CDMA network. Overall, the agreement would have been a huge win for Clearwire. No, that Clearwire would have been saddled with, and attention diverted by, dealing with a company with enormous legacy issues, including circuit-switched telephony technology, last-generation billing and management systems, huge personnel legacy and "worldview" issues, and thorny migration of Nextel users (those that haven't already quit) from 800 MHz to Sprint's 1.9 GHz CDMA network.

Would Google just buy Sprint Nextel?

Excerpt from Good Day, BWIA - Monday on Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News:

Rich Tehrani Says Maybe. I say No Way. Sprint Nextel is nothing resembling a strategic fit for Google - it's in all the wrong businesses to complement Google's core competence of Internet-based services accessible via Broadband Internet Access, such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), voice-centric technology, dealing with retail customers, etc. But Google could buy Clearwire. Their stock is cheap from the shellacking Clearwire took after last week's announcement that Sprint Nextel wouldn't be proceeding with a strategic partnership for both parties to build out complementary Mobile WiMAX networks on their respective 2.5 GHz spectrum. Clearwire's in the "do whatever you want with your Internet connectivity" business using (soon) designed-for-Internet Mobile WiMAX technology.

By Steve Stroh

Fine Print / Boilerplate / Acknowledgements / Credits / FAQs (Last updated 2007-11-06)

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh except for specifically-marked excerpts. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).

Sprint Nextel has Clearwire right where Clearwire wants them

From Good Day, BWIA - Friday in Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News:

Last night the Wall Street Journal reported that Sprint Nextel and Clearwire have called off their proposed agreement to jointly build out a new, nationwide Broadband Wireless Internet Access network based on Mobile WiMAX technology. My take - this is just posturing, or more likely fumbling on the part of Sprint Nextel as they flail around trying to find a new CEO who can spin a good enough story to Sprint Nextel's board and shareholders that Sprint and Nextel's glory days can be restored. 1) Ain't gonna happen, 2) Sprint Nextel is under the gun, as a result of conditions it agreed to as part of the Sprint / Nextel merger, to actually deploy new services in its combined 2.5 GHz spectrum. Or else. 3) Clearwire's got the backing and vision to actually go build a nationwide Mobile WiMAX network; Sprint doesn't have a fraction of that vision and to do so, it's going to have to actively fight its most activist shareholders... riiiggghhhttt. Sprint will spin it, of course, but in the end Clearwire's going to end up with Sprint's 2.5 GHz spectrum. Sliding further out on my limb... my guess for Sprint Nextel's new CEO? Craig McCaw. Oops... he's already spoken for with Clearwire? Well, that problem is easily solved with the simple expedient of Sprint Nextel acquiring Clearwire. You heard it here first.

By Steve Stroh

This article is Copyright © 2007 by Steve Stroh except for specifically-marked excerpts. Excerpts and links are expressly permitted (and encouraged).

WSJ Reports Sprint Considering Merger With Clearwire

Excerpt from Good Day, BWIA - Friday in Broadband Wireless Internet Access (BWIA) / WiMAX News:

Interesting story, but something else very interesting was in the article - mentions of the Google Gphone; that sparked several interesting  mental juxtapositions. First... my prediction is that Sprint will in fact bail out on WiMAX and essentially lease, sell, or merge their 2.5 GHz spectrum in a joint venture with Clearwire. Whatever form it takes, Clearwire's Craig McCaw's Machiavellian manipulations extending back close to a decade will come to fruition and he will be, defacto, in charge of the vast majority of 2.5 GHz spectrum in the US. It boils down to Clearwire's stockholders making a pure play bet on the ascendance of "pure" Broadband Wireless Internet Access and Sprint's stockholders fearing "a costly distraction from the carrier's core business". Clearwire stockholders kind of get it, but mostly they're betting on McCaw to "do it again! Sprint's stockholders don't understand that Sprint wireless services are technology-driven, and if you don't have the right technology, versus your competitors, you end up desperately scrambling to catch up; kind of like what the exodus of Sprint customers is indicating right now.