Valleywag: clearwire

Street View finally coming to Seattle

Jackson West — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 09:00:00 PDT

The Google Street View car was Spotted in Microsoft Country last week after launching in many smaller markets around the country first. Apparently the drivers, rather than use some fancy, newfangled Internet doohickey, simply burn the data captured by the rooftop camera array onto a CD and mail it back to Mountain View. The fact that Portland, Oregon and Juneau, Alaska were added to the list of Street View cities before Seattle inspired an April Fools article in local publication Naked Loon quoting a fictional Google spokesmonkey as saying the addition of Seattle was "extremely unlikely, save for some kind of highly localized disaster centered somewhere in Redmond."

My question is whether or not the car will be passing through the enclaves of wealth on the east side of Lake Washington like Mercer Island and Medina, where Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has his four-story underground bunker. Still, the homes of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and Clearwire founder Craig McCaw are all within Seattle city limits, so happy Street View hunting! (Photos by Jed Rosenzweig)

Google's private Internet to remain private, for now

Owen Thomas — Wed, 21 May 2008 10:00:00 PDT

Google has invested $500 million in Clearwire, a wireless-broadband venture also backed by Sprint, Comcast, and Craig McCaw, among others. But the search engine won't contribute capacity on its private fiber-optic network to help Clearwire transmit data, a spokesman says. Google currently uses its network to interconnect its datacenters and get cheaper rates from telecommunications companies it deals with. [Unstrung]

Clearwire stock, revenue -- and operating losses -- all up, up, up

Jackson West — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:40:00 PDT

Clearwire and new parent company Sprint Nextel certainly share one thing in common — operating losses. In an earnings announcement today, Clearwire posted a 76 percent increase in revenue compared to the same quarter last year for a total of $51.5 million. But while the company's stock tipped up slightly, it ultimately posted a loss of $1.08 per share, thirteen cents higher than analyst expectations. But with investment pouring in thanks to the deal with Sprint Nextel, these numbers may mean little. The real news? "With respect to our recent announcement to combine Clearwire and Sprint's mobile WiMAX businesses to form the new Clearwire, we expect the transaction to close during the fourth quarter of 2008," said Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff.(Photo by AP/Marco Garcia)

Sprint's Clearwire investment hits a snag as company reports $505 million in losses

Jackson West — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:40:00 PDT

Illinois-based iPCS, a wireless affiliate of Sprint Nextel, has sued the number-three wireless carrier in Illinois Superior Court. Its claim that the new company Clearwire, with a majority stake held by Sprint, infringes on that exclusivity agreement signed in 1999. The affiliate successfully sued Sprint over the Nextel merger, with Illinois courts awarding iPCS a victory in March. Meanwhile, Sprint Nextel (as it is officially known) reported $505 million in net losses for the first quarter on an eight percent drop in revenue, thanks mostly to attrition in the number of long-term contract customers. That the company can't get these issues worked out behind the scenes, or at least settle these lawsuits before a punitive verdict is reached, doesn't speak well of the management at Clearwire's new parent company. (Photo by AP/Reed Saxon)

Eric Schmidt's conflicted position on Apple's board

Jackson West — Wed, 07 May 2008 11:40:00 PDT

Already "walled off" from any discussion of Apple's iPhone, Google CEO Eric Schmidt could see his role on Apple's board of directors further diminish. Google's interest in wireless hardware powered by Android software and its investment in Clearwire's WiMax network pose apparent conflicts with Apple's interest in 3G iPhones. [BusinessWeek] (Photo AP/Michel Euler)

How Google yanked AT&T's chain

Owen Thomas — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:00:00 PDT

Negotiations to reform Clearwire, Craig McCaw's wireless-broadband startup, as a consortium backed by Google, Sprint, Comcast and others began as far back as January of this year. By mid-March the consortium had an outline of a deal that made Google the preferred software developer on the WiMax network. Today the consortium, operating under the Clearwire name, is expected to disclose that they are investing $3.2 billion in a nationwide WiMax network, which will eventually be able to deliver a 5-Mbps connection to cellphones and laptops. But what else was Google doing back in January?

Bidding up the cost that AT&T and Verizon eventually paid for their own wireless spectrum in the FCC's 700-Mhz auction. Far from simply trying to implement "open access" via their bid, it appears now that Google was trying to increase the cost of networks that might compete with Clearwire's WiMax one. Which would now explain why AT&T spent $200,000 to get three Congressmen to profess their hatred for Google.

There is precedent for yanking AT&T's chain in such a grand manner. When AT&T first bid on wireless spectrum back in the '90s, after its acquisition of McCaw Cellular Communications, it found that during the auction all their key markets had been bid up by a mysterious third party. Though they finally won the licenses they so coveted, they paid far more than anyone had expected. Who was the mysterious bidder that cost them so much money? The same person that is expected to be named chairman of the Clearwire consortium: Craig McCaw.

(WagCurious, a Valleywag commenter, submitted this item.)

Sprint, Clearwire work seven-way deal to create new wireless-broadband startup worth $12 billion

Jackson West — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:20:00 PDT

Clearwire, the wireless data company started by Seattle-area cell-phone billionaire Craig McCaw, will be recontsituted as a new company valued at $12 billion backed by primarily by Sprint, but also by cable providers Time Warner, Comcast and Bright House, chipmaker Intel and Web search behemoth Google. McCaw will continue as chairman of the board at Clearwire and Ben Wolff as CEO. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse agreed to give control to the pair as part of the deal, to ease concerns that Sprint's core wireless business would conflict as the new company's services began to compete for voice and data customers. Sprint has encountered numerous problems with deploying Intel-developed WiMax, and there's still the issue of whether the company will sell Nextel after a $35 billion acquisition in 2005 went south.

$5 billion WiMax network no-shows at CTIA

Paul Boutin — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:40:00 PDT

Gizmodo's gearheads got their grabby hands on hot new WiMax-ready gadgets at this week's supersized Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association trade convention in Vegas. WiMax is a sort of turbo Wi-Fi that promises cable modem speeds through thin air. But what will Nokia's N810 connect to? Washington Post financial reporter Yuki Noguchi observed a big black hole on the stage at which the WiMax Singularity had been expected to appear today. It was like Steve Jobs walking on stage at Macworld, reaching into his pocket, and not pulling out an iPhone. I've 100-worded her report.

Notable was the lack of news from Sprint Nextel on its WiMax venture with Clearwire, cable operators Comcast and Time Warner and Silicon Valley giants Google and Intel. Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse was expected to announce during his keynote speech this morning a $5 billion venture between the companies. No dice. Instead, Hesse said the company will move forward with its WiMax plans, called Xohm, but didn't mention any partners. Sprint, which has suffered from a customer exodus, has bet on WiMax technology to gain future subscribers. Yet finding funding for the nationwide network, which is estimated to cost around $5 billion, has been challenging. "The lack of an announcement raises questions about whether or not a deal will happen after all," said an analyst.

(Full disclosure: I'm a Washington Post Co. contractor through Slate. The folks at Boing Boing and TechCrunch taught me this nifty trick of "disclosing" my highfalutin' connections to pass off self-promotion as personal integrity.)

Intel is reviving ClearWire andSprint's failed ...

Jordan Golson — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:50:13 PST

Intel is reviving ClearWire andSprint's failed WiMax partnership with a much-needed $2 billion investment. Intel has always been WiMax's biggest proponent, spending a ton of money on development and including the technology in its next laptop chip design. This is on top of the $5 billion that Sprint has promised to invest in WiMax over the next three years. [Gizmodo]

Sprint Nextel has revived serious discussions ...

Jordan Golson — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 11:42:55 PST

Sprint Nextel has revived serious discussions with startup Clearwire to form a joint venture that would bring in funding from the likes of Intel, Google and Best Buy to build a high-speed wireless network using WiMax technology. [WSJ]

Sprint and WiMax startup Clearwire have ended ...

Jordan Golson — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 14:57:43 PST

Sprint and WiMax startup Clearwire have ended plans to form a joint venture. Supposedly the "complexities of the transaction" and the ouster of Sprint CEO Gary Forsee torpedoed the deal. This leaves a nationwide WiMax rollout for either company very much up in the air. [WSJ]

Sprint is considering a spinoff of its WiMax ...

Jordan Golson — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:09:02 PDT

Sprint is considering a spinoff of its WiMax division, combining it with wireless startup Clearwire, to form a venture with national reach in wireless spectrum. Forming a new company to focus on WiMax would allow backers to bet on it, but keep the huge capital expenditures required from a national rollout off Sprint's books. The cell provider is hunting for a new CEO to replace ousted exec Gary Forsee and is looking to staunch its bleeding of customers. [WSJ]

Ex-Amp'd CEO Peter Adderton plots his next move

Owen Thomas — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:57:28 PDT

If at first you don't succeed, be Peter Adderton. Ever since Amp'd Mobile, the troubled wireless carrier, messily declared bankruptcy in June, Adderton, its former CEO, has been trying to plot his own exit strategy. A rumored deal with Qualcomm never materialized, which makes us equally suspicious of MoCoNews's report that Adderton is "close" to joining Clearwire, the broadband-wireless Internet service provider. Why Clearwire would want to get entangled with Adderton isn't clear. Granted, Amp'd Mobile had a hit in "Lil Bush," the mobile-video series that made the jump to the boob tube on Comedy Central. But most ISPs fare poorly in the content business. And even if Clearwire really wants to make a go of it, is Adderton the best possible partner?