Clearwire now has mobile WiMAX commercially available in several markets it had previously announced as pending for its Clear service, including Dallas/Ft. Worth, San Antonio and Austin, Texas; the Chicago area; the Seattle/Tacoma area; Hawaii; and Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh, N.C.
These markets include several shared by Clearwire’s MSO investors, including the first markets where Time Warner Cable will be able to resell Clear service.
Time Warner Cable is now reselling Clear as Road Runner Mobile in Dallas for as low as $44.99 per month. North Texas customers can expect Internet speeds up to 6 Mbps. TWC customers in Texas will see Road Runner Mobile launch in San Antonio and Austin in early 2010, and the cable operator will be expanding its 4G mobile network to additional service areas – including Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C.; and Honolulu and Maui, Hawaii – over the next few months.
Time Warner Cable plans to launch additional mobile services in the future, such as the ability to program a DVR from a mobile device and the ability to take their video content with them on the go.
Comcast announced it will immediately begin reselling Clear as Comcast 2Go in Chicago and Seattle.
Sprint also has resale rights in all Clear markets; it announced it has formally begun sales in Seattle/Tacoma.
In some markets (e.g., parts of Hawaii and Seattle), Clearwire had been providing pre-WiMAX wireless services. In new markets, the company named general managers in each. The company also opened retail outlets in each market. In many new markets, customers can also order service at Best Buy locations, where they can also purchase WiMAX-enabled laptops and other WiMAX equipment.
Clearwire said Clear covers 800,000 of the 1.2 million people in the state of Hawaii in parts of Oahu, Maui and Lanai. In North Carolina, Clear now covers more than 2,000 square miles and nearly 3 million people. Clear covers more than 1,300 square miles and approximately 3.1 million people in the Puget Sound, Wash., market. Around Chicago, Clear covers 1,700 square miles and approximately 6.6 million people. Across Texas, Clear is now available in 11 cities, covering more than 4,700 square miles and 8.5 million people.
In total, Clearwire extended potential coverage to another 22 million people.
Clearwire supplier Motorola got into the act, donating laptops and Motorola USBw 100 adaptors to the Nativity BVM School, a Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Chicago. Clearwire will provide free Clear service for 12 months for those laptops that will be given to the students.
