Most likely because they don't want to turn it on piecemeal in big cities. They'd rather have the bulk of the city ready to go when they turn it on. LA, in particular, covers a lot of square footage.
What's with clearwire and Clear? Here in Seattle all the stores and outlets that sold it were Clearwire until this year when they all changed to clear. What's the difference other than changing names?
I found me some active 4G today. I could only run 1 test, but I got 5016 kbps down and 1008 kbps up. Considering that my average download speed on EVDO recently has been about 200-300 kbps, this is GREAT
I would have to agree with that reason. Even though I have heard people see 4G in LA, but is it very slow and it goes in and out of service quite a bit. Just a guess, but calling your company Clearwire sounds funny when you are selling wireless broadband. Nice speeds!
It is my understanding the Clear brand was put in place when Clearwire, Sprint, and a few cables companies merged their WIMAX assets.
Because it takes a number of years to properly build a network in a market the size of LA with all of our city zoning regulations and NIMBY's. They actually have a lot of 4G up and running in LA right now but they are not going to make any official announcements about it until later in the year. By the way the entire 22 freeway in Orange County is now well covered with 4G. There's more up than most people realize.
Thanks for the info, larry. I wondered if it was like this. I thought it might be like what T-Mobile did with their 3G, one day it was off and the next day it was live. Makes sense Sprint/Clearwire would activate as upgraded, but not officially announce it (until it's ready).
Totally different situation. Sprint and Clearwire actually have to build an entirely new network from scratch with new panels, ground equipment, leasing, zoning, etc. T-Mobile did not have to do that with their 3G deployment. So Clearwire will have to build the network along as they go and keep adding to it once it is launched. The tough part for Clearwire is going to be the residential areas (ie. South Orange County) as it is harder to put up sites.
