Craig McCaw’s Clearwire Corp. raised an additional $250 million in financing, according to reports, bringing the company’s total war chest to around $600 million. The funds came from 31 unnamed investors.
A Clearwire official was not immediately available for comment.
The company’s massive fundraising efforts give it a solid position to expand on its wireless broadband services. Clearwire’s WiMAX-like service give fixed residential users access to the Internet at DSL speeds. The company operates in more than a dozen markets scattered across the country and also is working to expand into Europe. Clearwire’s hardware comes from NextNet, which it owns.
It’s unclear how Clearwire will use its money; the company remains relatively tightlipped. However, wireless entrepreneur McCaw has said Clearwire eventually will support mobile WiMAX technologies and Voice over Internet Protocol services-which will put the company in the path of the cellular industry’s evolution to third-generation data technologies.
