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July 28, 2005

Clearwire Reportedly Plans Pan-European Networks

By Nancy Gohring

Clearwire may have plans to buy 3.5 GHz licenses in every European country where the spectrum becomes available: The company, owned by Craig McCaw, is notoriously tight-lipped about its plans but an executive at Clearwire told Caroline Gabriel, research director at Rethink Research Associates in London, about the operator’s ambitions. Clearwire has backed away from a license tender in Austria due to restrictions on deploying portable services in the band, she said. But Gabriel believes Clearwire could still enter the Austrian market through an acquisition at a later date if the regulator loosens up.

Early last week Clearwire reportedly invested as much as 15 million Euros in Danske Telecom for a partnership to deploy broadband wireless in Denmark. The companies hope to launch networks in three cities including Copenhagen this year. Last year Clearwire reportedly won 3.5 GHz licenses covering Copenhagen.

Clearwire also owns licenses in Belgium and Gabriel expects that market to come next. At least one executive at another broadband wireless company in Ireland recently said that Clearwire has been quite active deploying equipment in Ireland and a launch might be expected this summer. Clearwire spokespeople in Ireland have not responded to requests for comment.

Some reports have Clearwire also owning a license in Bulgaria and Gabriel suggests that Clearwire has been active in Italy also.

Posted by nancyg at July 28, 2005 3:03 PM

Categories: launch plans

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