Clearwire struts mobile WiMAX: Service levels ‘higher than 3G services’

Clearwire Corp. announced it completed the first phase of a mobile WiMAX field trial in Hillsboro, Ore., a suburb of Portland. Individuals participating in the trial, which covered 15-square miles in Hillsboro, used a mobile WiMAX laptop card and reported broadband connections at multi-megabit speeds, Clearwire said.
“A lot of our results are in line or exceed the expectations of the WiMAX Forum,” said Scott Richardson, chief strategic officer at Clearwire. “Generally, the speeds that the users are seeing are 2- to 4-megabits per second.”
Coverage during the trial was “consistent with typical cell tower type of spacing,” he said. Richardson declined to elaborate on the results of handoffs between cell towers.
Clearwire ran the trial using the 2.5GHz frequency band and equipment based on the IEEE 802.16e standard. Intel Corp. and Motorola Inc., both Clearwire investors, supplied the necessary infrastructure and devices.
The company now plans to expand its mobile WiMAX test with more users and expand the coverage area to 145-square miles.
“So far everything is meeting our expectations,” Richardson said. “The users testing the network were getting multi-megabit connections, and I think on average that level of service is higher than 3G services.”
“The successful completion of the first phase of our mobile WiMAX trial is a significant milestone in our efforts to commercially deploy true mobile broadband services in the U.S.,” Richardson said. “By demonstrating initial performance consistent with the WiMAX industry standards, we are making great progress in our ability to evolve our networks to take advantage of the benefits of a standards-based technology for future Clearwire subscribers.”