Clearwire, the broadband wireless provider founded by Craig McCaw, began offering a residential VoIP service over its network. The service was jointly developed with Bell Canada.
Clearwire said it will only sell service to those who qualify for Enhanced 911 (E911) service. Features include a local phone number within Clearwire’s market, unlimited local and long-distance calling within the U.S. and Canada, competitive international calling rates, call forwarding, enhanced call forwarding, caller ID, voice mail, voice mail to e-mail, three-way calling, caller blocking and international call blocking. The first market launch is in Stockton, California.
Clearwire is using a WiMAX class access solution developed by its wholly-owned subsidiary, NextNet Wireless. The service operates at FCC-licensed 2.5 GHz frequencies in all of its U.S. markets. Clearwire sends its signal wirelessly from a transmitter on top of a cell tower to a specially developed receiver modem.
- Clearwire is currently providing wireless Internet service in 27 metro markets, covering more than 200 cities and towns in Alaska, California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin in the United States, as well as Ireland, Belgium, Denmark (under the Clearwire name with Danske Telecom) and Mexico (via MVSNet).