Motorola has another WiMAX market launch coming up on July 21st in Las Vegas. That’s the day Clearwire officially unveils service in the third city on its rollout list. Las Vegas follows Atlanta and Portland, both of which are also powered by Motorola. Clearwire uses the Motorola WAP 400 and WAP 450 access points and is bundling service with the Motorola desktop CPEi 150 and the USBw 100 laptop adapter in several markets.
So what does the launch in Vegas mean? Beyond the availability of 4G mobile broadband to inhabitants and gambling tourists, I can think of one other major usage scenario. Conventions. What better way to sell one-day passes than to target transient business 
people desperate to stay connected? Not least of all, as GigaOM’s Jordon Golson points out, think of CES, the massive, annual gadget geek show. I would think Clearwire could make a profit just off of the wandering suits and gadget heads (myself included) that flood the city for three days in January. That’s Vegas, baby, Vegas.
Filed under: Internet, Motorola News, Networks, WiMAX
4G and Moto are important and relevant. Clearwire is not. They’ll be bankrupt or acquired within 10 months. Make a note of this prediction.
Oh yeah, I should also mention I canceled Clear/Xohm in December 2008 precisely because they weren’t going to have/announce coverage in Vegas for CES. Should have been one of their first markets. Like most of their rollout, they fumbled it.
Dave- While you cut Xohm for not having Vegas nailed down, I doubt many folks were looking forward that far. Also, I wonder what will happen with the Baltimore Xohm market with a potential re-launch planned.
[...] 1st, including Boise Idaho, Bellingham Washington and eight metro areas throughout Texas. Like Portland, Atlanta and Las Vegas, these markets are all running exclusively on Motorola radio access network equipment – the [...]
[...] the Motorola side, the equipment in the deal includes access points, like the WAP 450 (also used by Clearwire) and the WAP 800, as well as CPE, like the USBw 100, the CPEi 775, and the CPEo 450. It’s a [...]