Broadband Reports has confirmed that Clearwire is testing new tiered pricing plans in several new markets. Clearwire's new trial pricing plans offer users 2 GB of usage for $20, 40 GB of usage for $40, or an unlimited offering for $60. This is in contrast to existing pricing, that offers users two "unlimited" options: a $35 Internet Basic plan, or a $50 Internet plan. Both of those plans are throttled when users exceed undefined consumption limits.

"What you’re seeing there is a trial we have underway in some markets to offer new tiered pricing plans in addition to our unlimited plan," Clearwire spokesman Mike DiGioia tells Broadband Reports. According to Clearwire, the trials are occurring in ten markets total: Charlotte, Minneapolis, Boise, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Trenton, Cleveland, Boston, Salt Lake City and Miami.

"We believe that these plans will give customers greater control of their broadband options by allowing them to select the plan that best fits their budget," Says DiGioia. "It’s important to note that we plan to continue offering unlimited usage plans and this is intended to expand the range of options and reach a broader base of potential customers with a wider variety of needs."

As we've noted, Clearwire does have a somewhat murky definition of the word unlimited, not only throttling users back to 256kbps for downloading as little as 3-5GB, but also kicking excessive users off the network entirely. These new plans may offer more clarity for users (and possibly lawyers) annoyed by Clearwire's seemingly arbitrary definitions of excessive consumption.

Granted none of this may be relevant for long, with Sprint rumored to be taking full ownership of Clearwire for $2.2 billion.