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Citywide WiMAX, Wi-Fi, municipal wireless and broadband news

Clearwire mum on Xohm launches, says LTE a possibilityToday

The new Clearwire just concluded its first conference call with analysts and press types, and while some questions did get answered there were more questions raised by the quick interaction, including a declaration that Clearwire might switch from WiMax to Long Term Evolution (LTE) as a technology base sometime in the future.

While declaring mobile WiMax as the best technology currently available for 4G services, Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff said that LTE (which has been embraced by AT&T and Verizon for their respective 4G wireless data plans) will most likely gain some traction, and as such will be considered as a possible future alternative for Clearwire.

“Mobile WiMax and LTE have a lot in common,” said Wolff, who added that Clearwire will build its network infrastructure in such a fashion that will allow the company to move to, or add LTE technology “if we decide it makes sense to do so.”

While such a switch would be at least two or three years in the future, some more immediate Clearwire concerns — including the pending launches of WiMax services in Chicago and Washington, D.C. — were put on hold, at least until the company’s new board of directors can convene for strategic talks. Though Clearwire merger partner Sprint had

Event: National Broadband Strategy Call to Action, December 2Today

The New America Foundation is hosting an event called the National Broadband Strategy Call to Action on Tuesday, 2 December 2008 from 10:00 to 11:30 am at the Dirksen Senate Office Building, SD-G50, First Street NE and C Street NE, Washington, DC.

Here is a description of the event:

In an unprecedented display of consensus, a broad and diverse array of groups concerned about America’s broadband future will release a Call to Action that provides President-elect Obama and the incoming Congress a policy framework for a comprehensive national broadband strategy. The Coalition includes prominent communications providers, high technology companies, manufacturers, consumers, labor unions, public interest groups, educators, state and local governments, utilities, content creators, foundations, and other stakeholders in America’s broadband future. These organizations believe that such a strategy is critical to America’s economic vitality, educational opportunity, public safety, energy efficiency, environmental stability, global competitiveness, and a continuing high quality of life.

At the event, representatives of these organizations will voice support for the Call to Action, discuss their shared goals, and announce their intent continue to work together to address key issues and policy priorities.

Agenda

Welcome
Michael Calabrese
Directo

Airspan and Freedom4 demo WiMAX roaming on a laptopToday

Roaming between WiMAX networks just got a boost after Airspan, an equipment maker, and FREEDOM4, a UK WiMAX operator, showed a laptop with a WiMAX USB dongle that allows the user to roam on WiMAX networks that use different spectrum bands. This is significant because it allows WiMAX operators to enter into roaming agreements with one another, across different countries, so that people who buy WiMAX service from one operator can simply use another operator’s network without additional fees or sign-up hassles. It is particularly interesting for users who want to roam between license-exempt networks or to licensed ones. Operators who own a very small slice of spectrum (say in the 2.6 GHz) can combine it with bigger slice (e.g. 3.6 GHz spectrum) to give users more capacity, and compete with 3G operators.

FREEDOM4 is a joint venture between the FREEDOM4 Group and Intel Capital. It is deploying WiMAX in the 3.6 GHz band in the UK. FREEDOM4’s service is available in Manchester, Milton Keynes and Warwick.

Argyroupoli, Greece launches municipal wireless networkYesterday

Argyroupoli, Greece (pop. 33,000) has rolled out a municipal wireless network called Arnet. The city is in the southern part of the greater Athens metropolitan area. Residents and visitors can expect up to 2 Mbps downstream and upstream speeds. With 67 wireless mesh nodes, the network covers 85% of the city. Municipal funds have been used to build the network.

Clearwire’s 100-day agenda: Devices, VoIP and roamingYesterday

Just like a hungry uncle devouring Thanksgiving leftovers, the new Clearwire wasted no time tying up the loose ends of its WiMax assets merger deal with Sprint Nextel, finishing the deal Friday while everyone else in the country was busy digesting the previous night’s feasts.

With a conference call scheduled for early Monday morning, some business details that have been waiting for the merger’s completion (like when the Chicago and D.C. networks will be live) should finally be made public. While you will be able to read that news here soon after we learn it, today we’re setting out our own agenda for the new Clearwire and some things we think it needs to get done in the first 100 days to keep its market lead over the eventual competition in the rapidly expanding mobile-data market.

Specifically, there are three things that Clearwire needs to do well and quickly to increase its chances of success, not just against the coming Long Term Evolution deployments from telcos like AT&T and Verizon, but against the already existing 3G services, which are still used only by a small minority of the Internet community.

1) Get some new devices to market, qui