Broadband Internet access without the wires arrived Tuesday in a large swath of Snohomish County extending from Lynnwood to Arlington.
Clearwire Corp. is emphasizing its service’s ease of use, its portability and its speed, which is comparable to Verizon’s basic DSL option.
The company also hopes to snag average households that haven’t yet made the leap to faster Internet access, either because of the price or limited choices for such service.
“It’s the first time customers have access to the five key features we offer: It’s fast, simple, portable, reliable and affordable,” said Ben Wolff, Clearwire’s co-chief executive officer. “You turn it on, and it works.”
For download speeds of 768 kilobits per second and upload speed of 256 kilobits, Clearwire normally charges just under $30 and a $5 modem rental fee, not including taxes. Verizon DSL service at that speed is available with a yearlong contract for about $15 monthly.
But DSL isn’t available in all the areas covered by Clearwire.
Locally, wireless Internet services designed for homes have mostly been limited to rural areas, especially in east Snohomish County, where small firms have set up systems.
Clearwire’s service area includes Lynnwood, Everett, Snohomish, Lake Stevens, Marysville, Arlington, Monroe and parts of Edmonds, Mill Creek and Bothell. It also encompasses the Seattle and Eastside areas in King County and the greater Tacoma area in Pierce County.
It’s the largest single launch area to date for Clearwire, which serves 32 major markets across the country. The Kirkland-based company, founded by Craig McCaw, has major backing from Intel and Motorola.
It’s also one of the nation’s first providers of pre-WiMAX technology. Faster and more regulated than Wi-Fi, WiMAX holds the promise of delivering faster Internet access over large areas.
While many of Clearwire’s first markets were in rural areas with limited Internet providers, Snohomish County already has higher-speed offerings from Comcast and Verizon. Wolff said Clearwire’s competitive price and flexibility, however, give its technology an edge.
“Customers love the flexibility, the portability,” he said, noting that customers include “mobile business people” such as real estate agents and attorneys who want to use their Internet access anywhere in the coverage area.
Gerry Purdy, mobile and wireless analyst with Frost &Sullivan, said the Puget Sound area should provide a good testing ground for how the technology works in a largely urban area.
“If they’re going to have a national network, they’re going to have to learn how WiMAX behaves in a metropolitan area, where you have glass and steel buildings for the signals to bounce off,” Purdy said.
Kevin Laverty, spokesman for Verizon, said Clearwire obviously competes with DSL, but it can’t touch the speeds of Verizon’s new fiber-optic network, which is available in portions of south Snohomish County.
“The bottom line here is consumers win when there’s competition,” he said.
In addition to selling the service via its Web site, www.clearwire.com, the company has dozens of dealers set up in Snohomish County.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
Internet speeds
While they can vary, here are the optimum download speeds offered by various Internet technologies from Verizon, Comcast, Clearwire and other competitors. A megabit is equivalent to 1,000 kilobits.
Dial-up: 56 kilobits per
second
Clearwire: 768 kilobits to 1.5 megabits per second
DSL: 768 kilobits to
3 megabits per second
Cable: 6 megabits to
16 megabits per second
Fiber-optic: 5 megabits to 30 megabits per second
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