With just two markets launched, Clearwire Corp.’s mobile WiMAX service is already facing an identity crisis.
Unveiled late last year in Baltimore by joint venture partner Sprint Nextel Corp. under the Xohm brand name, the service has since expanded to Portland, Ore., by Clearwire under the Clear brand. But, beyond the fact that both networks use similar spectrum and mobile WiMAX technology, they have nothing in common.
For one, the networks use a different version of the mobile WiMAX standard that has apparently left them incompatible with one another. A Xohm customer from Baltimore stepping off a plane in Portland is out of luck if they are expecting to fire up their laptop and begin surfing the Web.
Xohm’s Web site says “Xohm here. Life better.” to promote its Baltimore service.
Clearwire’s President and Chief Architect Barry West cited the infancy of the joint venture for the interoperability issues, but said he expects that to eventually be resolved.
“Baltimore is deployed in a different way and we’re bringing those differences together,” West said. “We have to work through the logic and the plans. I mean, we’ve only been merged (with Sprint) for six weeks.”
Xohm’s demise
Of course, that confusion could be nipped in the bud as that same Xohm customer may have no idea that the same company is operating the Clear network. However, Clearwire expects this to change shortly as the company is planning on ditching the Xohm name altogether for Clear.
West said that Clearwire will not spend money on marketing or advertising existing Xohm services, even though the company’s booth at the recent Consumer Electronics Show was stocked with Xohm ads and products.
“We don’t want it hanging out there,” West said. “We want the Clear experience to stand for something.”
As far as timing goes, Susan Johnston, spokeswoman for Clearwire, said Xohm will disappear sometime this year but didn’t provide specifics as to when or what would happen to Xohm customers and their purchased products and plans.
Pricing challenges
The two operations also differ on pricing for their services. The Clear home Internet service plans start at $20 per month with on-the-go plans starting at $30 per month. The $20 per month home service includes network speeds up to 786 kilobits per second, while an extra $10 per month ratchets that speed up to 3 megabits per second. And for $40 per month users can have access to download speeds up to 6 megabits per second.
Clear’s on-the-go Internet service pricing is also tiered, but instead of being based on speed, it’s based on usage. For $30 per month users can download up to 200 megabytes of data; $40 per month gives 2 gigabytes of data transmission; both plans also include a $10 per gigabyte overage fee. For $50 per month users can receive unlimited access to the network, though Clearwire does indicate it can throttle network usage for certain activities.
The Xohm service is priced at $35 per month at home and $45 per month while mobile.
Still too clear for you? Well how about this: Sprint Nextel plans to eventually begin offering its own mobile WiMAX service running on the Clearwire network using a mobile virtual network operator model and under the “Sprint 4G” brand. The carrier currently offers a <a href=wireless modem that includes support for its CDMA-based 3G network as well as the Baltimore flavor of mobile WiMAX. Similar MVNO-type offerings are also expected to spring up through Clearwire investors Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable, Google Inc. and Bright House Networks.
Timing advantage dwindling
All this confusion is also eating away at the time-to-market advantage WiMAX backers claim compared with those operators looking to deploy Long Term Evolution technology. What was once tagged as at least a 2-year advantage could now be counted in months. Verizon Wireless executives said late last year that they expect to have LTE available before the end of the year.
For Clearwire, the sound of the ticking clock should be crystal clear.
