WiMax firm Clearwire gets $900M investment

Clearwire continued to dazzle the high-tech world this week by attracting $900 million in investment capital from tech majors Motorola and Intel.

Intel said Wednesday it would invest $600 million in Clearwire while Motorola and its partners would pony up another $300 million to accelerate the development of WiMax wireless technology.

Last year Clearwire obtained $100 million in capital from Canada's BCE Corp. In return, BCE's Bell Canada became Clearwire's partner in a wireless VoIP network in the United States.

"The size of this investment ... underscores our commitment to supporting wireless broadband using WiMAX networks in the United States," said Intel Capital President Arvind Sodhani.

Clearwire operates WiMax networks in about 200 metro markets in the United States and overseas. Intel and Motorola seek to build on the success of smaller-scale WiFi technology and create a new generation of wireless computer and cell-phone products.

WiMax is another form of wireless broadband; however, its range is much larger than WiFi, which is limited to relatively small hotspot areas.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International