Las Vegas– Mobile WiMAX operator Clearwire
and majority owner Sprint Nextel revealed the names of the next cities that
will get commercial 4G service this year on the way to expanding the
wireless-data service beyond its current 27 markets to a population of 120
million people by year’s end.
Clearwire markets the service under the Clear
brand, and Sprint resells the service under its own brand. The announcemenets
were made here at CTIA Wireless 2010 today.
Earlier this year, the two companies
announced plans to roll out service this year to Boston,
Denver, Kansas
City, Houston, Minneapolis,
New York, San Francisco
and Washington D.C. Now the two have added the following
markets to the 2010 list: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Miami, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City and St. Louis.
On other topics, Clearwire announced plans to
accelerate data speeds by 20 to 30 percent, unveiled its latest
Clear-service-embedded subsidized netbook (The $249 Dell Inspiron Mini), and
announced plans for its next-generation battery-powered mobile 4G hot spot,
which will incorporate embedded mobile WiMAX technology. The current $139 Clear
Spot requires the addition of a 4G data
modem.
In upgrading its WiMAX netrork, Clearwire is
using antenna signal-processing technology to double the number of transmitters
and receivers per cell site, boosting potential end-user throughputs by about
20-30 percent, the company said. The Clearwire network currently delivers
average mobile download speeds of 3 to 6Mbps with bursts of more than 10Mbps,
the company said.
The company is making the upgrades on a
rolling basis and has already completed the installs in some existing markets,
including Seattle, Honolulu
and Maui.
To support the additional wireless
capacity, the company is enhancing its microwave backhaul network to increase
total backhaul capacity by 250 percent or more, and it’s implementing a
long-term capability to support gigabit per second speeds in high-traffic
areas, the company said.
In new products, Clearwire on April 1 will
launch the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook with embedded 4G technology through
select Clear-owned outlets, telesales and
. Currently, Clearwire
offers 30 different 4G-embedded netbooks and notebooks from such companies as
Dell, Lenovo, Fujitsu, Samsung, and Toshiba. The Mini 10 will be available for
$249.99 after instant rebate.
The next-generation Clear Spot mobile Wi-Fi
hotspot will be available sometime later this year, the company said without
disclosing details.
Minority owners in Clearwire are Comcast and
Time Warner cable, which are rolling out their own brand of 4G service over the
Clearwire network.
