WiMAX

Baltimore became the first city to receive Sprint's XOHM WiMAX service after the carrier officially turned on the signals in the downtown area on Monday.  Networks in Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. or Northern Virginia are still being tested.  Download speeds should come in around 3-4mbps and prices are reported to be around $35/month with no contract necessary.

America Online announced a deal to partner with Clearwire to resell their WiMax service, newly branded "AOL High Speed - powered by Clearwire." Clearwire was launched in 2004 by famed cellular network pioneer Craig McCaw, who sold what was considered the first national cellular network to AT&T in 1994 for 11.5 billion. McCaw made much of his fortune in the 1990's buying, hoarding, and selling spectrum licenses and this time around, you guessed it, he's sticking to his roots. McCaw's Clearwire has eagerly been buying MMDS spectrum in the 2.5-2.7GHz band and currently has a WiMax buildout in nearly 200 some cities. Though Clearwire holds at least 132 MMDS licenses, Sprint Nextel currently owns 93% of the spectrum Clearwire needs. McCaw was a sitting member on Nextel's board of directors until 2003 when he resigned to pursue "new opportunities." Clearwire has actively been buying out other wireless carriers like that of Winbeam, a WISP serving locations in Altoona, Greensburg, and Erie, PA and announced last month the launch of their own VOIP service much to the chagrin of Vonage-blocked customers. McCaw also owns Inukshuk, a Canadian MMDS provider that has similiarly partnered with AOL Canada and NextNet, which makes COFDM systems for his various WiMax companies. While it is unclear how aggressive AOL will be in funding a larger buildout, at least they're moving away from BYOB (broadband not beer).