Clearwire officially launches WiMax in Vegas

On July 21, Clearwire’s mobile broadband service will go live in Las Vegas, making it the fourth commercial launch market for its mobile WiMax service. The service rollout, along with the Atlanta’s launch month, is likely just the beginning of a flurry of activity this summer and fall, resulting in a WiMax footprint covering at least 10 metro markets by year end.

Las Vegas is actually one of the first WiMax markets Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) began constructing. As early as CTIA in 2007, Motorola (NYSE:MOT) had a functioning trial network operating in the Las Vegas strip, but since then it has expanded the WiMax footprint considerably. According to Clearwire’s coverage maps, the network now covers all of Las Vegas and most of its surrounding communities, including Paradise—where a large portion of the Las Vegas Strip is located—Henderson and Nellis Air Force Base.

As it did in Atlanta, Clearwire quietly started offering the Clear service to customers months before the official launch date. The first signs of activity are now emerging in its next markets, Chicago and Dallas. Blog Phonenews.com found advertisements in Craigslist purportedly placed by Clearwire seeking new salesman for its forthcoming launches in those cities.

Las Vegas is the last of three markets in which Clearwire had begun building last year. The next wave of rollouts—of which the Chicago and Dallas networks are part—shift to WiMax networks Sprint begun before it merged its 4G assets with Clearwire. Integrating those networks may prove tricky as Clearwire hasn’t yet reconciled its back office systems with those developed for Sprint. The Sprint-built Baltimore network still operates independently from the growing Clearwire footprint, but Clearwire has promised to integrate the two systems by year end.

In addition, to the new markets, Clearwire is ramping up its other activities. Two of its investors, Sprint and Comcast have already launched mobile virtual network operator services using the WiMax network, and its first embedded consumer electronics device besides a laptop the Samsung Mondi is expected soon. Samsung said the device would begin shipping to Clearwire in the second quarter.