Clearwire launches first major market

Clearwire has entered its first major metro market, announcing today it has rolled out services in the greater Seattle-Puget Sound area. The metropolitan region covers Seattle, Tacoma and Everett, Wash., and contains roughly 2 million people.

The Seattle launch increases Clearwire’s covered pops by a third, giving it a footprint of 8 million people, most of them centered in smaller markets of a 100,000 people or so throughout the U.S.

After its $900 million investment infusion from Intel and Motorola earlier this year, Clearwire has been building out more aggressively and has decided to forgo an initial public offering. Motorola also bought NextNet, Clearwire’s hardware arm, committing the carrier to evolving its current proprietary broadband wireless technology to Mobile WiMAX. For the Seattle launch though, Clearwire appears to be still using its plug-n-play Pre-WiMAX solution, which most customers can self-install.

Clearwire plans a big marketing blitz to mark its entry into a Tier 1 market. The service provider is hosting a laser light show at Seattle’s Space Needle, which it promised to be one of the largest in the city’s history. But theatrics aside, Clearwire is also launching a community initiative today called Clearly Connected Communities, in which it will provide free or discounted portable broadband access to social organizations assisting the homeless, foster care and seriously ill children.

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