Clearwire, Sprint, others launch 4G service WiMAX in Kansas City
The latest generation of wireless Internet service finally is arriving in Kansas City on a broad scale.
Clearwire Corp. (Nasdaq: CLWR), along with partners Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), on Tuesday began selling the service, which uses WiMAX technology and boasts wireless download speeds comparable to those of wired connections.
Mobile internet service plans, which Clearwire is selling under the Clear brand, will begin at $40 a month with the purchase of a $69.99 USB data card. Sprint, Time Warner and Comcast plan to sell the service under their own brands and service packages.
WiMAX signals are similar to the WiFi Internet service found in coffee shops and libraries but can cover an entire city. Until now, Independence-based Computers and Tele-Comm Inc. sold the area’s only WiMAX service in the downtown area through stationary antennas.
Clearwire, based in Kirkland, Wash., is rolling out the service throughout the country, now reaching a population of 41 million people. It expects to reach 120 million people by the end of the year.
Overland Park-based Sprint merged its WiMAX assets into Clearwire in late 2008 and owns a majority stake in the company. In November, Sprint pledged an additional $1.18 billion for Clearwire to back the continuing WiMAX rollout.
Time Warner Cable and Comcast also are investors in Clearwire faxless payday advance.
Clearwire said it is opening three retail stores — at Oak Park Mall, Independence Center and the Country Club Plaza — to sell the service, which also is available online.
John O’Donnell, Clearwire’s general manager for Kansas City, said the signal initially will cover 700 square miles, centered on the Interstate 435 loop, and about 1 million potential customers. In the coming months, the company will add equipment to better cover the margins of the metro area and do some in-filling, O’Donnell said.
Sprint and Clearwire are trying to establish WiMAX service in as many markets as possible because later this year competitors are expected to begin rolling out a competing technology called Long Term Evolution, or LTE. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has called 2010 “the year of 4G,” or fourth-generation wireless services, which Sprint hopes will let it leapfrog its competitors.
On Friday, Sprint will begin selling the HTC EVO 4G, the nation’s first wireless device that works on a fourth-generation network. It’s considered a strong candidate to challenge the dominance of Apple Inc.’s iPhone, which is sold exclusively on AT&T Inc.’s network. The EVO will require a $69.99 Everything Data plan plus a $10 Premium Data add-on charge.
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