WiMAX World: The quiet one speaks

BOSTON--Broadband wireless service provider Clearwire has, by extension but also by its own design, acquired the reclusive reputation of its founder, Craig McCaw. But, with an increasingly aggressive market rollout and extroverted partners like Motorola and Intel, it has no place left to hide.

Clearwire’s co-CEO and president, Ben Wolff, provided a rare glimpse at Clearwire’s plans and progress during one of the general keynote sessions Wednesday at WiMAX World. Wolff said the service provider had 162,000 customers in more than 30 U.S. markets and three international markets as of last month.

“In 20% [or about seven] of our U.S. markets, we’ve have more than 10% subscriber penetration,” Wolff told a packed room at the show. He illustrated that progress with a chart that--true to Clearwire’s quiet nature--didn’t identify those markets other than referring to them by the letters ‘A’ through ‘G.’

Wolff also touted some of the company’s own research, which suggests that in its markets, its penetration per total home passed is well above that of its DSL and cable modem competitors. In addition, Clearwire’s average revenue per user is $35.40. The research also showed that 58% of Clearwire customers previously had broadband service from a wireline provider, while 32% had dial-up and about 10% had no Internet connectivity at all.

In some cases, Clearwire’s wireless access is being used by customers who also still use wireline broadband service. “Customers see our service as complementary to other broadband services because it’s so portable. Some of our customers actually like that it’s not part of a bundle because it gives them more flexibility.”

Wolff said Clearwire will be launching new U.S. markets, such as Seattle, later this year, and also is planning to exploit the national licenses it has earned overseas in Spain, Romania and Poland.