Fierce Wireless | Forum discussion

Mobile WiMAX carrier Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) announced a five-year wholesale deal with United Online, the company behind the NetZero Internet service brand, extending its wholesale umbrella at a time when it is shuttering its own branded postpaid service.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. NetZero customers will be able to access Clearwire's network in early 2012, though the companies did not say exactly when the service will become available.

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[I]Broadcom today announced that it has acquired Beceem Communications for $315M. According to Broadcom, the acquisition will allow the companies to accelerate the availability of low cost WiMax, and more importantly, LTE devices.

Beceem, a privately-held company, is a leading provider of fourth generation (4G) wireless platform solutions. Beceem has announced the industry’s first 4G multimode chips that can support both LTE and WiMAX 4G networks. Beceem’s industry leading WiMAX chips are in many clients offered by Clear and others.

Beceem had filed for a $100 million IPO in April on the strength of its WiMax and “4G” orders. This exit by acquisition will likely be noted with interest by other chip startups, such as Altair Semiconductor and Sequans Communications, notes LightReading.

Eran Eshed, co-founder of Altair, told Dailywireless this morning that the Broadcom purchase was “not a surprise” and that their exit was “sub-optimal”. Eshed believes the real value growth of 4G start-ups like his will be in the next couple of years. He’s also skeptical that Beceem’s LTE chip is ready to go.

More at: dailywireless.org