New York, New York, it’s a heck of a town ... to build out a new wireless network in, that is. With its dense population, challenging topology, tall buildings and mirrored surfaces, blanketing a market like New York with a mobile WiMAX network will take some engineering. But that might be just what Clearwire Corp. is up to if we’re to read anything into an employment ad it has placed looking for RF engineers in the New York and New Jersey area. Tagline: “New Markets Deployment.”
Clearwire isn’t commenting on its network expansion plans, saying only that an announcement would be made “soon.” And no wonder it’s not. So far it offers WiMAX service in Baltimore and Portland, Ore., though technically the service in the former town was launched by Sprint-Nextel Corp. last fall before that company spun off its Xohm WiMAX division to Clearwire. As a result, the two markets aren’t interoperable, a situation the company says it is working to resolve.
That, added to the fact that it has failed to meet target deployment dates and that devices haven’t been delivered, plus funding issues and talk of WiMAX not meeting its business case, has thrown the long-term viability for Clearwire WiMAX into question for some analysts.
