May 2nd, 2007
Clearwire announces WIMAX laptop card: here's where it will work
WIMAX service provider Clearwire Corporation reports final FCC approval of the first WiMAX-class laptop card that will connect to the Clearwire network.
The company says that this product will be offered by Clearwire in the second half of this year.
Following the FCC approval, the new wireless broadband product is on target to be available in Clearwire markets during the second half of this year.
That's a map of Clearwire markets at the top of this post.
Happy talk:
"The FCC’s approval of our laptop card is a significant milestone in bringing to market a ‘true broadband’ wireless service with a device that facilitates even greater portability than our existing modem permits," said Perry Satterlee, Clearwire president and chief operating officer. "We expect the new laptop card to broaden our potential customer base with more opportunities for customers to access and experience our fast, simple, portable, reliable and affordable wireless broadband services."
Motorola Networks & Enterprise's senior vp Fred Wright sounds ready to be scraped off the ceiling as well. The fact new Clearwire laptop card is part of Motorola’s wi4 Expedience solutions has something to do with it.
“Motorola’s Expedience wireless access system delivers high speed, nomadic broadband access for Clearwire’s customers, and our new laptop card will give them even more convenience as they connect to the information, entertainment and people that are important to them," he said.
A non-line-of-sight device, this modem fits into a standard Type II laptop card slot on portable computing devices and is compatible with Microsoft Windows Vista and XP operating systems. To run, it only needs a simple driver to be added to a PC.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
