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McCaw tackling wireless broadband

By Alex Fryer
Seattle Times Washington bureau

Craig McCaw

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Based in Kirkland, Clearwire features a wireless modem consumers can plug into their computers for high-speed Internet access. It offers broadband speed that is 25 times faster than dial-up, according to the company.

Clearwire is offering service in Jacksonville, Fla., and St. Cloud, Minn.

Company President Clark Peterson said Clearwire seeks to be in 20 cities in the next year, but he would not elaborate. "We think there is a lot of market share available."

Speaking to the Wireless Communications Association in Washington, D.C., McCaw said yesterday he had closely watched the difficulties of the telecommunications industry in recent years.

"As we walked over the bodies of our brethren and, seeing the arrows in their backs, we're saying, 'How could we avoid this?' " he told the crowd of industry executives and lobbyists. "You go back to basics. What do people want? What are we missing?

"The product has to be simple. It has to be cheap. It has to be customer-friendly in every way."

Yesterday's announcement caps months of speculation about McCaw's next venture after his efforts in pioneering cellular-phone service and attempting to develop satellite phone and data transmission.

The speculation heated up about a month ago after his Kirkland-based Flux Fixed Wireless merged with Clearwire Holdings, an Arlington, Texas, wireless Internet service provider that held leases to broadcast spectrum allotted to schools in the 1960s.

Clearwire recently purchased NextNet, a developer of non-line-of-sight (NLOS), plug-and-play broadband wireless access systems. NextNet is in 20 markets around the world, including Mexico, the United States and Africa.

"We believe in the NLOS, plug-and-play technology that NextNet has developed and, in combination with our own proprietary technology, view it as an important part of our plans," Clearwire Chief Technology Officer Rob Mechaley said in a statement. "This technology is being used today, and is delivering on the promise of WiMax services."
 
WiMax is an emerging technology in which subscribers within miles of an antenna can have high-speed access to the Internet; that compares with a range of only a few hundred feet associated with the more established Wi-Fi.

Clearwire's system is described as portable, meaning a user can connect wirelessly to the Internet within the service's coverage area.

McCaw, who now is chairman and chief executive of Clearwire, said the wireless industry was in competition with cable and DSL operators, who have aggressively protected their turf.

"The cable industry and telephony industries have done an excellent job of putting reptiles in the moats around their businesses," he said. "And they do it in a variety of ways: regulatory and technology."

McCaw urged the wireless industry to unite behind efforts to lobby the Federal Communications Commission to force license-holders to use their licenses or sell.

"The lessons of history are clear: if we work together, we can make something if this," he said.

McCaw is best-known for starting McCaw Cellular Communications, which he sold to AT&T in 1994, when it became AT&T Wireless. He rescued Reston, Va.-based Nextel Communications in 1995 by investing about $1.1 billion to make it one of the country's largest wireless carriers.

Peterson said Clearwire was hiring, marking one of the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak employment picture for telecom workers.

He would not give specifics about total work force.

Alex Fryer: 206-464-8124 or afryer@seattletimes.com