The joint WiMAX effort of Clearwire and Sprint Nextel that floundered last year has risen like a phoenix from the ashes, thanks to a $3.2 billion cash infusion from Comcast, Intel Capital, Time Warner Cable, Google and Bright House Networks.
Intel Vice President Sriram Viswanathan, who runs the wireless investment program at Intel Capital, said the joint investment is a "pretty dramatic" development because it had been the subject of intense speculation within the industry for months. "This removes a lot of the uncertainty that has been talked about for some time in the media concerning the future of WiMAX in the U.S.," Viswanathan observed.
Timing Is Important
Counting previous investments Intel made in Clearwater in 2004 and 2006, the chipmaker's cash commitment to a revitalized Clearwire represents the biggest gamble among the outside supporters. "We already had a $600 million investment through a prior investment and $20 million before that," Viswanathan explained. "So we have a very substantial position in the company alongside the other partners."
The timing of the deal is important because WiMAX only has a few years to become established as the high-speed mobile broadband technology of choice before the launch of a competing technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE) championed by Qualcomm, Ericsson and other mobile-technology vendors. "We don't expect LTE to be a significant mobile issue in the U.S. until 2011 at the earliest," said Forrester Research Vice President Lisa Pierce.
However, Pierce has a different perspective on WiMAX's potential, placing more emphasis on opportunities beyond the conventional mobile-network arena.
"I have been more interested in WiMAX as a way to help smaller business locations to be able to cut the cord on their T1 access," Pierce explained. "I think that sort of potential has very long legs, but it would take a significant effort...

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