Cellular industry pioneer Craig McCaw has quietly re-entered the Wireless business, and is poised to ignite an already hot Broadband Wireless Interent Access industry. Unlike his recent involvement with Nextel, this new venture is "all McCaw".
I'll reserve much of the detail of this story, which I've been tracking for more than a month, for the subscribers of FOCUS On Broadband Wireless Internet Access. A special issue of FOCUS will be transmitted to subscribers later today and contains an in-depth discussion and analysis of the new McCaw venture.
What has been widely under-reported, until now, is that McCaw has assembled all the pieces necessary for this new venture to quickly emerge in a number of markets. Those pieces include the necessary spectrum, an equipment supplier, back-end services, executive talent, and (presumably) financing.
McCaw began quietly acquiring individual spectrum licenses in the 2.5 - 2.69 GHz MMDS/ITFS band last year through a company called Flux U.S.
McCaw bought a minority stake in NextNet Wireless, a well-regarded BWIA equipment supplier in Minneapolis. This week it was disclosed that McCaw has purchased NextNet Wireless in toto. NextNet's Expedience system is user-installable. The radios can be sold at retail or mail order - a "truck roll" is rarely required.
McCaw has acquired Clearwire, a BWIA service provider that has deployed a test network, and has an exclusive deal with the ITFS Alliance, a consortium of ITFS band licensees for Clearwire to lease those ITFS licenses.
Many of McCaw's most trusted, and now well seasoned, lieutenants have gotten back on board with McCaw for the new venture.
McCaw's core competency is "creative" financing, as he's ably demonstrated with numerous ventures.
Another McCaw core competency is the demonstrated ability to grow a national brand, something that has been lacking in BWIA systems to date.
McCaw's intent is to initially target Tier II cities; Nextel and Sprint currently hold the vast majority of Tier I of 2.5 - 2.69 GHz licenses. McCaw will intially market the service as "fixed", Broadband (up to 1.5 Mbps), Internet. In reality, the NextNet Wireless Expedience system is fully capable of mobility (as in mounted in vehicles - the antenna and radio are somewhat bulky, rendering them largely unsuitable for laptop use) and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) such as Vonage and Packet8 services.
McCaw's may well draw upon his relationship with XO Communications (he founded the company as NextLink) for Internet backbone connectivity, "backhaul" services (XO has extensive fiber and wireless licenses [unsuited for direct competition with McCaw]) and most importantly, as a CLEC, extensive telephony capability for when McCaw enables the new service for telephony, in direct competition with wireline telephony.
McCaw is in the process of integrating and relocating all the management and administrative functions of the acquired companies and the new functions in Kirkland, WA... a familiar base of operations for McCaw dating back to the founding of McCaw Cellular.
McCaw's new venture is now operating under the brand of Clearwire, and the web page is operational now at www.clearwire.com.
Steve Stroh
Copyright (c) 2004 by Steve Stroh. This article originally appeared on Corante / Broadband Wireless Internet Access.
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