Clearwire Corp. added 47,000 subscribers and launched two new markets – Charlotte, N.C., and Rochester, N.Y. – in its fourth quarter, ended Dec. 31, but reported large quarterly and year-end losses.
The operator ended the year with approximately 394,000 subscribers, marking an increase of about 188,000 subscribers – a growth rate of about 91 percent. Clearwire ended 2007 with approximately 16.3 million people covered by its network in 50 domestic and international markets.
“On the new market development side of our company, progress was marked by nearly doubling the size of our network footprint, launching 14 new markets, successfully completing initial trials of the mobile WiMAX technology that we expect to deploy in the second half of this year, and increasing our spectrum portfolio by more than 3 billion MHz/POPs,” said Benjamin Wolff, CEO of Clearwire.
Clearwire’s service revenues totaled $45.4 million in the fourth quarter, up 91 percent compared with the $23.7 million in the year-ago quarter. For the full-year 2007, service revenues totaled $151.4 million, marking a 124 percent increase compared with $67.6 million in 2006.
In the fourth quarter, Clearwire reported an operating loss of $160 million, an increase of 81 percent compared with $88.7 million in Q4 2006. And for the full-year 2007, Clearwire reported a net loss of $727.5 million, an increase of 156 percent compared with the $284.2 million net loss for 2006.
“As we move ahead in 2008, we look forward to building on the success of our residential broadband and voice services through the planned deployment of mobile WiMAX networks, which for the first time will enable customers to enjoy all that the Internet has to offer when they are both at home and away, with a simple and seamless ‘True Broadband’ experience from a single, unified wireless network,” Wolff said.
In January, The Wall Street Journal reported that Clearwire and Sprint had resumed talks about collaborating on a national WiMAX network (story here). In July 2007, the two companies signed a letter of intent to work together to provide nationwide WiMAX coverage through metropolitan networks (story here).
More Broadband Direct:
• FCC to consider phasing in DTV transition
• Analyst downgrades Cablevision due to acquisition strategy
• Insight bulks up digital tier with more HD, digital music offerings
• NCTA, cable entities come together on scheduling industry events
• Brophy, Campbell join ACA’s executive committee
• AT&T, Sprint upgrade networks in select markets
• Clearwire ups sub count, operating loss in Q4
• New Cisco router based on new chip
• Japan, China, U.S. drive 2007 fiber deployments