new company hopes to deliver wireless broadband service to 140 million people within thirty months.

New Clearwire will deploy an advanced mobile WiMAX broadband network that will cover up to 140 million people in the United States in thirty months.

said by Karl Bode :

It's their own prediction and has repeatedly been doled out to the media (myself included)...it's also in FCC filings:They also like to throw out the prediction of 60-80 million by 2009, 140 million by 2010 and 200 million by 2011.

They may make noises about rural development of Wimax, but they will only get near those numbers if they are deploying mostly in metro areas.

Last month, Sprint launched its first WiMax urban deployment in Baltimore to generally favorable reviews. Clearwire has been testing a mobile WiMax deployment in Portland, Ore., and is preparing to go live with that network early next year. In a conference call following the release of Clearwire's financial report, Wolff indicated the company might be able to use so-called "white spaces" spectrum, which is unlicensed and was approved for free use by the FCC last week.

"We think of it as expanded Wi-Fi," Wolff said. "I think that presents some interesting opportunities for us, and will be looking at how we might leverage it in the rural areas." He noted that Google, its new investing partner, pushed hard for passage of the white-spaces spectrum.

said by Mike :

140 million?

Try 2 million. Max.