Now that the formation of the new Clearwire company has been approved by the Feds as well as their shareholders, it is expected that the deal will be closing on December 1st. What does that mean for us WiMAX-hungry consumers, though?

The closure of the deal will give Clearwire access to a huge chunk of change (several billions of dollars courtesy of Intel and more) and they are going to put it right to use. Portland, Oregon is reported to be the first market deployed, and that will be happening soon - first quarter 2009 - followed by Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Grand Rapids. The lack of big city names like LA and New York is a bit disappointing, but they are hiring for many positions around the country, including Los Angeles and Texas, indicating that those areas will likely be Clearwire markets at some point.

For now, it's back to waiting for XOHM to switch their test markets (Chicago, Philly, et al) to official XOHM networks!