Clearwire Clears $360.4M<< BellSouth's Kafka-esque Network Costs | Main | Net Neutrality: A Voice of Reason >> Joseph Laszlo | March 10, 2006, 05:52 PM It's kind of rare that I blog breaking news, but given a Friday evening I'll be among the first to congratulate Clearwire on closing an impressive $360 million debt round. Clearwire's ambitions to be the third major residential broadband connection (after cable and DSL), using a pre-standard version of WiMAX over licensed spectrum, make it important beyond its still relatively small size. Still, though, Clearwire is making its play in a market that's already highly aware of broadband, and that defaults to the cable guy or the phone company for service...while I'm sure much of the funding raised so far will go to just building out the infrastructure, over time I expect that Clearwire will have to do more marketing to increase familiarity with the brand and the technology. We've looked (somewhat skeptically) at WiMAX before [JupRsch report from 2004]. But the issue has always been one of spectrum and money, not fundamental technology issues. Clearwire's ability to raise funds certainly helps it overcome those challenges. I'll be writing a longer piece later this year on all the alternatives to cable and DSL, and how they stack up and whether/when they impact the market. |
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