The Seattle Times published a great Q&A with Clearwire's CEO, Bill Morrow, today, and Morrow discussed everything from finances to LTE (the competing 4G technology that Verizon and AT&T will roll out over the next couple years) to the upcoming launch of Clear WiMAX in Seattle. Morrow's informative and interesting answers to the Times' questions will be of interest to any mobile broadband aficionado and particularly to those of us waiting for WiMAX - here are some excerpts:
On whether Clearwire has the money to deliver on their build-out promises:
We do -- $2.5 billion -- which gets us to the 75 million [potential customers] level, but we're planning for 120 by the end of next year. But as I've told many of the analysts, I'm confident we're going to get the funds. It will be there. It's more what terms we will have and how that will look, that's really what were more focused on and looking at right now.
On the future "WiMAX vs LTE" competition with Verizon:
It doesn't bother me because I think it's an affirmation that the future is in this space and there's an enormous, pent-up demand among consumers. I like it - it puts more attention on it, it drives the ecosystem, it drives the developers and the application software writers to think 'great, we're going to have what we had on the fixed-line, broadband side on the mobile level, so let's all start to work on that.' So I like them getting more aggrrssive.
On whether he envisions Clear customers using consumer devices with built-in WiMAX chips (like how the Kindle uses EVDO) or direct subscriptions:
I think it will be a combination thereof. I would say in the next three years it's not likely to hit the majority. It will be more direct, either through the Clear brand or through Sprint or Time Warner or Comcast sorts of wholesale channels. But there will be a complement, a growing complement, that will be this service provider model of consumer electronics. Three years is pretty soon, but not too long thereafter.
On the upcoming launch of Clear in Seattle, where Clearwire currently has a "pre-WiMAX" network in place, and how big an area will be covered:
Unfortunately we can't cover everybody and everywhere they go right from the beginning, so the people that are in the covered area are thrilled. It's the people on the outlying area, that may live partially in or work within the area of coverage but not live within the area of coverage - once you get used to the service it's kind of addictive, so it's a frustration when suddenly you don't have it. That will exist for quite awhile.
Click here to read the full interview from the Seattle Times
