Clearwire launches WiMax PC card

Good to see this is starting … I had not anticipated seeing WiMax rollout until the beginning of 2008, but it’s happening now — if you happen to live in a covered area – I think parts of Seattle and possible Chicago.

“WiMAX provider Clearwire has made available its long-awaited PC card in its retail stores and online in almost all of its markets, according to Pali Research. Analyst Walter Piecyk said the launch should be perceived positively since it increases Clearwire’s target market. PC Card can be used in most laptops versus a modem’s size and power requirement that limit mobility.

‘The PC card launch will be a critical test for Clearwire on the market demand for broadband wireless services in the face of slowing growth in cable modems and DSL lines as well as the recent cancellation of muni-WiFi projects,’ noted Piecyk.

Clearwire is charging $80 for the PC card, which includes a $75 mail-in rebate and two-year contract. Clearwire’s PC card rate plan is $60 per month for downlink speeds of up to 1.5 Mbps.” [FierceBroadbandWireless]

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17 Replies to “Clearwire launches WiMax PC card”

  1. I had Clearwire when I lived in Abilene, it was one of their launch markets. The service was great, VERY speedy, the only time I could tell a difference from my cable connection was when I was downloading some huge file or torrent or something.

  2. I think it’s going to be a while until it’s good based on coverage, but it should be… thought it was going to also be faster than EVDO… I don’t have any 3G+ devices at the moment so anything would be better than EDGE.

  3. It is not a WiMAX card it is a wireless broadband card based upon Clearwire’s proprietary NextNet system which Motorla foolishly paid about US$600M for. This card will not be able to work on SPRINT’s ture mobile WiMAX network. This move further muddy the waters and do more harm to WiMAX than benefit. My recommendation to Clearwire dump Motorola and go with a true WiMAX vendor.

  4. @MrMagnus – Interesting I had no idea. It actually makes no sense to manage two totally different networks rollouts, but companies have certainly done worse…

    I doubt they’ll be canning this effort, but will likely issue an update which renders this current product useless, forcing an upgrade at some later time.

  5. Maybe not canning, but they will have to force their supplier Motorola to either provide a free swap out of old equipment or actually build a certified WiMAX network which in strategic markets overlap their curren NexNet network. A pain and not so wise decision by Craig (-: BTW I hear through the grapwine that Motorola has bigger problems in that they are behind schedule and that SPRINT might think of dropping them and replace them with someone like Alcatel-Lucent which has made some significant strides in their Mobile WiMAX efforts as of lately…

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