Tag Archive: Clearwire

Clearwire has completed its merger with Sprint Nextel’s WiMax unit, and will absorb Sprint’s existing WiMax network in g Baltimore and continue building out the company’s planned nationwide WiMax service. The new unit will continue doing business under the Clearwire name; the company (based in the Seattle suburb Kirkland) already has about 400,000 customers on its own network. Eventually, Clearwire hopes to make WiMax “4G” mobile broadband services available to as many as 140 million users in the United States using Sprint’s extensive spectrum licenses.

Back in November, telecommunications operator Sprint publicly cut ties with wireless operator Clearwire over deploying WiMax wireless broadband service, heralding a period of belt-tightening and re-evaluation within Sprint as it’s watched its subscriber retention decline, decided to lay off 4,000 employees and shutter 125 stores, and instituted an executive shakeup that included the departure of its CFO.

Now, the Wall Street Journal says talks between Clearwire and Sprint are back on, with the two companies considering a joint venture backed by deep-pocketed technology companies like Google and Intel. The very expensive goal would be to roll out a nationwide WiMax network—a service Sprint is currently dubbing Xohm—only this time, Sprint would spin off the network into a joint venture with Clearwire, making Sprint’s participation more palatable to its already-jittery investors.  Read more...