WiMAX History in the Making

posted by Kari Aakre on May 07, 2008

If you haven’t heard the news yet, check out the press release that Clearwire and Sprint issued bright and early this morning (I was wide awake at 3 a.m. when the news hit). The two companies entered into an agreement to combine their WiMAX wireless broadband businesses to form a new wireless communications company to be named Clearwire. They also announced that Intel Capital, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Google and Bright House Networks invested a combined $3.2 billion in the new company.

Why is this history in the making?

First, Intel Capital alone is investing $1 billion in the new Clearwire, making it the largest investment ever by Intel’s global investment organization, and its third investment in Clearwire (previous investments were made in 2004 and 2006).

Secondly and most importantly, this new company is going to focus on accelerating the deployment of the first nationwide mobile WiMAX network in the U.S. And the other companies making investments in the new Clearwire signal the growing, broad cross-industry support for mobile WiMAX. Check out Google’s blog about the news, too.

Hear all about the significance of the new Clearwire and WiMAX deployment in the U.S.and around the world straight from the mouth of Intel’s very own WiMAX guru — Intel VP Sriram Viswanathan — in this video interview.

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