Clearwire ... saved by Zero (s)

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Thumbnail image for sprint-wimax-deal1.jpgSprint is merging its WiMax Xohm business with Clearwire in a $3.2 billion investment backed by Google, Comcast, Intel, Time Warner Cable and others in a move to save the technology in the U.S. The deal originally fell apart last November but we thought some investors would come forward. Craig McCaw is bringing together some of his early day pioneers such as John Stanton (from Western Wireless, later became VoiceStream, then T-Mobile) and Dan Hesse of Sprint. So far Sprint has only shown it can lose money and faces rapid extinction to Verizon and AT&T. WiMax has already lost momentum to spectrally efficient LTE (4G), I'm still not sure they can gain market traction.  The real winner is Clearwire and a small pay day for McCaw. Google wants to ensure it has a home for Android handsets and put up $500 million. That's plenty of Zeros for the venture, but I don't think they'll win.

1 Comments

Mark Author Profile Page said:

I think Paul is dead on with this blog. Clearwire's small market approach is noble, however this type of investment will draw out a long struggle to compete against new technologies specifically LTE. This investment makes a statement, but I question Clearwires ability to perform on their technology platform.

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Paul Lopez Paul Lopez is a 25-year technology veteran whose career has spanned multiple disciplines such as product management, software development, engineering, marketing, business development and operations... read more

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