Intel invests in McCaw's Clearwire

Intel invests in McCaw's Clearwire: "Telecommunications billionaire Craig McCaw is getting a financial boost from Intel.
The Santa Clara, Calif., semiconductor giant yesterday said it was investing an undisclosed amount in Clearwire, the Kirkland wireless Internet startup that McCaw introduced earlier this year.
The deal, which was announced yesterday morning at the CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment conference in San Francisco, calls for Clearwire to roll out powerful new networks that use the 802.16e WiMax standard. Those networks could create a broadband cloud that covers an entire city or county, allowing users to make Internet-based phone calls or conduct e-commerce anywhere they wander within a geographic area. Unlike Wi-Fi, which covers an area of a few hundred feet, WiMax networks are said to extend over several square miles.
Clearwire uses a similar technology in Jacksonville, Fla., where the company this summer launched a high-speed network that covers a 100-square-mile area. Clearwire will deliver service to Abilene, Texas, and St. Cloud, Minn., next month, with the company planning to enter 20 additional markets in the United States in the next year. It is also building wireless networks in Mexico and Canada."

Never underestimate Craig McCaw...