The newly formed Clearwire is only a week old, but they are wasting no time picking up where Sprint left off and moving forward with their new brand. As you probably know by now, the closure of the merger between Clearwire and Sprint's WiMAX division gives Clearwire all of Sprint's WiMAX assets as well as access to several billion dollars of investment money from the likes of Google, Intel, and of course Sprint.

Clearwire's WiMAX service is called "Clear", and XOHM is being re-branded to match. As far as we can tell, there won't be any interruption in service for users already signed up with XOHM - it's simply a matter of re-branding. The new Clear WiMAX network debuted in Portland last week, and while the new clear.com website does NOT bother giving us any sort of coverage map to look at, you can type in an address and see if service is available. You can't take a look at the plans or see how much the modems cost unless you confirm your coverage first, so I used the Portland Fire Department's address and was able to peruse their offerings. Here's what I found:

Essentially, Clear's service structure is set up very similarly to XOHM's. You have the option of "home" service with a Motorola home modem - it plugs into the wall and then you can connect either via ethernet or hook it up to a regular WiFi router - or "mobile" service with a Motorola w100 USB dongle. Like XOHM, Clear has no-contract options, but you also have the option of signing a 2-year Clear contract and getting some discounts, including waivers of the $35 activation fee. The cost of the devices themselves is the same whether you sign the contract or not, though - $49.99 for the USB dongle and $175 for the home modem - so I would imagine that most people will opt to steer clear of contracts (pun 100% intended).

The other interesting thing that Clear has done with their plans is give you options for speed with the home modem and usage with the USB device. With the home modem, you are guaranteed unlimited bandwidth (let's see how long that lasts), but you can choose the speed you pay for: $20/month for 768 Kbps/128 Kbps, $30 for 3.0 Mbps/384 Kbps, or $40 for 6.0 Mbps/512 Kbps. With the USB modem, you are limited to 4.0 Mbps/384 Kbps, but you can choose from three bandwidth plans: 200mb for $30, 2GB for $40, or unlimited (again - enjoy it while it lasts!) for just $50/month.

While these new plans offer a lot of flexibility and can help occasional users save money by giving them a cheap, low-usage option, it all seems a bit much. Even the most expensive plans offered by Clear are still very competitive - and cheaper than EVDO - so I doubt many customers will choose to forgo the potentially awesome speeds Clear can offer in favor of saving $10 a month.

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