Clearwire buys wireless spectrum from AT&T

Craig McCaw venture picks up wireless assets to expand in the southeast.

Clearwire dropped $300 million in cash to buy spectrum in the 2.5-GHz band from AT&T on Tuesday.

Once the deal is approved by regulators, Clearwire will hold the majority of licenses in this spectrum, which is ideally suited to support WiMax wireless broadband services.

Clearwire offers fixed wireless broadband services, based on WiMAX, in 33 markets in the U.S. and in a handful of other countries. The service supports downstream speeds of 1.5Mbps. The service provider, started by wireless industry veteran Craig McCaw, touts 206,000 customers.

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Clearwire dropped $300 million in cash to buy spectrum in the 2.5-GHz band from AT&T on Tuesday.

Once the deal is approved by regulators, Clearwire will hold the majority of licenses in this spectrum, which is ideally suited to support WiMax wireless broadband services.

Clearwire offers fixed wireless broadband services, based on WiMAX, in 33 markets in the U.S. and in a handful of other countries. The service supports downstream speeds of 1.5Mbps. The service provider, started by wireless industry veteran Craig McCaw, touts 206,000 customers.

AT&T sold off this spectrum as part of concessions it offered the FCC to complete its acquisition of BellSouth. The spectrum covers cities in the southeast, BellSouth’s traditional serving areas. AT&T completed its $86 billion acquisition of BellSouth in December.