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Wireless Internet Provider Targeting Tri-Cities

Posted on: Monday, 1 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

Jul. 30--Clearwire LLC, a company rolling out wireless Internet services in cities across the country, has listed Kennewick as one of the cities it plans to open in by the end of the year.

That could mean brand-new options for residential and business Internet service in the Tri-Cities, where wireless Internet has expanded in the past few years but still lags behind many major metropolitan areas.

Clearwire spokesman Todd Wolfenbarger said the company couldn't discuss its specific plans for Kennewick and the Tri-City region, including when the service may become available, in what areas it may be offered or how much it may cost.

But he did say Clearwire plans to offer pricing "competitive to a DSL or cable modem service" for its wireless Internet service, which is built on a new technology with greater range and fewer line-of-sight restrictions than the more common Wi-Fi wireless Internet standard.

Since its founding by cell phone entrepreneur Craig McCaw in June 2004, Kirkland-based Clearwire has opened up shop in 11 cities, including Jacksonville, Fla., St. Cloud, Minn., Eugene, Ore., and the California Central Valley cities of Modesto, Stockton and Merced.

Kennewick is one of several cities named on Clearwire's Web site as places the company's services will be "coming soon."

Wolfenbarger said Clearwire plans to be operating in 20 markets by the end of the year.

The privately held company uses a new wireless Internet technology known as pre-WiMAX, meaning it is built on a new standard, WiMAX, which hasn't yet been officially approved by the body of industry experts organized to set standards for it.

Unlike Wi-Fi, Clearwire users must use a modem rented from the company to access its Internet service, meaning Wi-Fi enabled computers won't be able to "hop on" to the Clearwire service. In other cities, Clearwire has been renting its modems for $5 a month, according to news reports.

Also unlike Wi-Fi, the new technology Clearwire is using doesn't depend on a clear line of sight to broadcast its signal. The need for a clear view from a broadcast antennae can limit where Wi-Fi users can access the Internet.

Clearwire's technology also has a greater range than Wi-Fi, in some cases up to three miles from a broadcast antennae. That could give it an advantage over Wi-Fi Internet service providers like 180 Networks, One World Telecommunication and Amerion, some of the private companies that now offer Wi-Fi connectivity in the Tri-Cities through a network of antennas and fiber-optic cables built by Benton PUD and Franklin PUD. Those antennas have ranges of about a mile.

Clearwire is hoping the ease of installing its service -- simply plug in the company's modem and connect to a computer with an ethernet cable, and you're on -- could also give it an advantage over land-based broadband services like DSL and cable modem connections that require some installation, Wolfenbarger said.

Clearwire hasn't said how much it may charge for its services in Kennewick, but prices it's charged in other cities could provide some examples of the possibilities.

When the company first offered service in Jacksonville, Fla., in August 2004, it offered bandwidth in prices ranging from 512 kilobytes per second for $25 a month to 1.5 megabytes per second for $35 a month, according to the Jacksonville Business Journal.

In Medford, Ore., where Clearwire started offering its service in May, prices were a bit higher, with 512 kilobytes per second for $30 a month or 1.5 megabytes per second for $38 a month for residential customers, along with a $25 startup fee, the Medford Mail Tribune reported.

Clearwire does plan to widely publicize its plan for the Tri-Cities once they are made final, Wolfenbarger said.

"We think there's real opportunity there," he said. "We think that, if a market has a need to communicate, we might have something that can make an improvement."

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Copyright (c) 2005, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.

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Source: Tri-City Herald

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