Clear and present (part 2)

Today I continue my discussion of Clear, a new wireless broadband option for connecting to the Internet, both at home and remotely, from nearly anywhere in the Las Vegas Valley. This new player brings WiMax, also known as 4G, connectivity.

The company had a public launch party this afternoon and evening at Town Square, but I got a sneak peak earlier in the day.

Mike Sievert, Clear's chief commercial officer, said the company's goal is to be in 80 U.S. markets and available to more than 120 million people by the end of 2010. Las Vegas today joined Portland, Ore., Atlanta and Baltimore. Other cities preparing for Clear service this year include Chicago; Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas; Honolulu; Philadelphia; and Seattle.

"Think of this as a Wi-Fi hot spot the size of the Las Vegas metro area," Sievert said. "This is the first time two of the biggest trends in technology in the last 25 years have come together -— broadband Internet and mobile."

A Clear truck outfitted with a mobile living room, complete with surrounding picture windows, was the demonstration site of the service. The “office” area features the in-home modem, which resembles other Internet modems, with one major difference: there is no line coming in from a cable or satellite connection, as the signal is wireless.

"You don't need to call anybody to install it and you don't need to rewire your house," Sievert said.

The coffee table in the “living room” had a laptop computer with a wireless modem plugged into the universal serial bus slot. Both computers were put through the paces, showing video and film sites playing flawlessly. An adjacent tent set up for the event had more devices, including a Clear-connected iPod Touch playing video through a Slingbox connection to a television in the Seattle area. Again, the picture was flawlessly smooth.

Customers in Las Vegas or the other cities with Clear service can still take their laptops on the road to cities not yet offering the WiMax connection, as the modems are dual-band and will revert to a 3G connection on the Sprint network.

“Sprint is an investor and a partner,” Sievert said. “Clear is building the (4G) network and Sprint will (eventually) be offering their own brand (of WiMax).”

I'll write more about Clear in my next column.

A map showing the Clear coverage area in Las Vegas.

Clear desktop modem, which can be connected to your home's wireless WiFi router:

Clear's laptop modem, whch includes both 4G and 3G connectivity: