CLEAR Vegas and Sam Mondi

Clearwire had a two-pronged launch on Tuesday with news both of its CLEAR WiMAX service reaching Las Vegas as well as the availability of the Samsung Mondi for its network and othe device news. The 4G-level service debuts on the 21st and will give the desert city typical download speeds between 3Mbps and 6Mbps, rendering it suited to video streaming and other broadband tasks on the road. Plans start at $20 for fixed service at home or $30 for mobile use anywhere in CLEAR's coverage areas. The company also has a $45 fixed-and-mobile plan for those who need two connections as well as a $10 day pass for visitors.

The Mondi is shipping shortly and provides a customized Windows Mobile-based touchscreen handheld for basic computing tasks on the road; besides e-mail and web access, it also handles instant messaging, chat using fring, and GPS mapping. It also has a 3-megapixel back camera and smaller front camera, both of which can be used to record events or participate in two-way video chat, and Office Mobile for text editing on the road. It hasn't been given a price but ships on August 1st for use on CLEAR.

On the same day, Clearwire plans to launch the 4G+ mobile USB, an external modem that provides both WiMAX on its own network and 3G on Sprint's. Accompanying this, a Mac version of the provider's Clear Connection Manager software is due on August 17th and will initially let MacBooks and other Apple systems use Clearwire's already existing, WiMAX-only USB modem. Mac support for the 4G+ mobile USB is due in the fall.

By Electronista Staff