Clear WiMAX Network at Wall Street's Mercy

Stacey Higginbotham — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:55:44 +0000

Today the Wall Street Journal finally got around to pointing out that Clearwire’s plans to build out its Clear WiMAX network would likely be affected by the tight credit markets — something we first brought up in October. At that time, Clearwire said if needed, it could draw out the timing on its network build-out if it could not raise money at reasonable rates, an option Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff reiterated to us when we spoke with him earlier this month. The company said it has to raise up to $2.3 billion to cover the gap between the costs of its nationwide WiMAX build-out and the $3.2 billion invested in the venture by Google and cable companies. Others have put that gap at $5 billion.

However Chris King, an analyst from investment bank Stifel Nicolaus, says that if it does choose to wait, Clearwire could lose out on its 4G first mover’s advantage. It might, depending on how quickly other carriers move to LTE, although Clearwire will likely have a price advantage over LTE services, much like it has an advantage over 3G cellular data plans today. But that price competitiveness comes at a steep cost to Clearwire, as King doesn’t expect the company to make a profit until 2015.

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Water Cooler Chatter: WWD Around the Web

Jackson West — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 09:33:58 +0000

While I knew that the launch of this site wouldn’t exactly go unnoticed, even I was surprised when so many of the blogs that I read daily considered it noteworthy. And in chasing down inbound links using Technorati, I found lots of bloggers discussing relevant topics to add to my must-read-feeds folder and Web Worker Daily’s blogroll. You can find our thanks, exclamations of joy and witty comebacks to playful ribbing by friends around the blogosphere after the jump.

The first site to elucidate the concept of ‘going bedouin,’ Charter Street, brought their deep understanding to bear, explaining the reasons a mobile workforce changes business paradigms, in language that everyone from freelance webmonkeys to seasoned venture capitalists can understand. [Charter Street]

The ever-snarky Valleywag reminded me, in no uncertain terms, that I overuse the term ‘bedouin.’ After consulting my thesaurus and brainstorming, I came up with nomads, cowboys, vagrants, hobos, hunter-gatherers, transients, tourists and backpackers as good substitutes to avoid the journalistic style bugaboo known as ‘mirror words.’ [Valleywag]

Ever gracious, TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington took a moment from his own busy schedule of blog empire building to offer enthusiastic support. He even likes our Communist-kitsch logo — coming from a serial entrepreneur like him, that’s certainly reassuring. [TechCrunch]

Silicon Valley veteran Tom Foremski understands what’s going on, having given a name to rootless, wandering web workers last year — “Nomadig people.” We can’t wait for the ‘zine he promises will focus on the art and culture of our growing tribe. [Silicon Valley Watcher]

Wired News’ Michael Calore wanted answers to some of his questions about our plans, goals and community we hope to serve with Web Worker Daily. I tried desperately to follow Om’s instructions and not say anything ‘controversial.’ [Monkey Bites]

While you’d be hard pressed to figure it out at first glance, Web Worker Daily is powered by Matt Mullenweg’s WordPress.com — one of the first in what should become a series of high-profile, custom-designed publishing ventures they’ll be supporting in the future. [Photo Matt]

Here in the Bay Area, every time I get together with fellow survivors of the dot-bomb we inevitably end up trading war stories, cynical jokes and pessimistic projections. Rick Abruzzo at Supr.c.ilio.us doesn’t spare the snark, and deconstructs the pre-Perestroika Soviet symbolism that we’ve co-opted for our devious, capitalist purposes. [Supr.c.ilio.us]

A man who’s mastered connectivity on the go, and regularly packs his EVDO-enabled WiFi router to selflessly share mobile wireless connectivity wherever he is, we’re most proud of the mention from Scott Beale of Laughing Squid — an arbiter of geek cool since before geeks were cool. [Laughing Squid]

Sadly, there’s not enough room to thank everyone who linked to us and offered kind words — including those who blogged in foreign languages I barely understand, if at all. To cover as many bases as possible: Thank you, gracias, toda, merci, sukran, grazie, xie xie, danke, asante, spahseebah and arigato. And please, don’t be a stranger, get in touch!

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Clear WiMAX Network at Wall Street's Mercy

Water Cooler Chatter: WWD Around the Web