Clearwire launches in the Windy City

US WiMAX poster child Clearwire made its debut in the city of Chicago this week as the service provider expands its nationwide footprint.

The Chicago area- which coincidentally, is US kit vendor Motorola’s hometown – is served by cell sites built with Motorola’s WAP 600 and WAP 450 Diversity access points. The WAP 450 uses tower-top power amplifiers that are linked by fibre optic cable with the base control unit, creating a very compact cell site configuration that is significantly smaller than traditional cellular infrastructure products.

Motorola is also supplying two WiMAX devices, the USBw 100 and CPEi 150 to users of the Clear service. The CPEi 150 caters to desktop users, while the USBw 100 is a dongle form factor device catering to users on the move.

Both the USBw 100 and CPEi 150 are data-only devices that operate in the 2.5GHz frequency band.