CLEAR 4G WiMAX Innovation Network is Now Open for Developers in Silicon Valley
In an exclusive article, Clearwire details logistics, goals and objectives for the "4G" CLEAR Developer’s Network in Silicon Valley. Largest 4G WiMAX "sandbox" for developers covers more than 20 square miles in Santa Clara, Mountain View and Palo Alto, California.
At the September 17th Telecom Council Carrier Connections conference, Clearwire’s Allen Flanagan provided an overview and short video on the company’s "4G" mobile WiMAX Innovation Network – a pre-commercial network for mobile WiMAX application development and testing in Silicon Valley. The network went live only two days prior -on September 15th. The development focus was said to be "4G" Mobile Applications. These will be described later in this article.
The CLEAR developer network is a precursor to commercial service planned for the San Francisco Bay Area1 in 2010. It will cover more than 20 square miles in Santa Clara, Mountain View and parts of downtown Palo Alto, California. The current coverage footprint includes the local campuses of Intel and Google, two founding Innovation Network supporters who have also commenced their own internal 4G application development programs. Cisco’s campus will receive coverage in the coming months as the network expands. Clearwire will update the coverage area maps over time
After reviewing terms and conditions, qualified software application developers that live or work in Silicon Valley can register for free mobile WiMAX service, as long as they buy or own a Clearwire approved terminal (see list below). Bright House, Comcast, Sprint, and Time Warner Cable will join Cisco, Intel and Google in support of Clearwire’s mobile WiMAX application development initiative. All those companies except Cisco are strategic investors in Clearwire. The first four plan to resell the CLEAR service, so they have a lot to gain. All of the participants will aid in promoting the program and have deployed their own respective development resources into the network (e.g. RAN equipment, IP NGN systems, devices, software, etc).
Infrastructure providers include: Motorola, Samsung, Huawei (these three vendors supply RAN equipment), and Cisco (Core IP NGN Network).
Editor’s Note: Allen could not confirm that all of these infrastructure vendors would be involved in the Innovation Network instance.
Components, modules and applications were said to be available from: Intel, Google, Cisco, and Beceem (chip set). Netbooks with embedded mobile WiMAX interfaces are available from Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba, Samsung, and Fujitsu for use in the program. The new Samsung Mondi MID handheld is also supported on the Innovation Network.
Editors Note: only the mobile devices listed are eligible for use on the CLEAR Innovation network. Home modems and CLEAR VOIP products and service are not available on the Innovation Network.
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