It's been a while since we've updated this blog, but not for lack of interesting news! The tech industry has been buzzing like crazy about the future of 4G, particularly the war between WiMAX and LTE. WiMAX had the early lead, but Verizon has made some bold goals about their LTE plans, promising to debut the service in two markets by the end of the year, and WiMAX is still only (officially) available in Portland and Baltimore.

With Verizon's LTE plans in place, it is imperative that Clearwire and Sprint expand their coverage in order to stay competitive. Before Clearwire can even think about expanding, though, they still need to take care of the issue of integrating XOHM and Clear! Right now, even though Clearwire has taken over, XOHM is still operating as a separate entity and there is no way to "roam" between the two networks - if you're a XOHM customer and travel to Portland, your modems won't work on the Clear network, and vice versa.

According to XOHM employees, they have not even been told whether Clearwire will be closing down the XOHM offices in Arizona or if they will simply become Clearwire employees. Clearwire's offices are in Oregon, so unfortunately it seems likely that they may decide to close that office altogether.

We have been repeatedly assured that XOHM customers will be taken care of and will have no problems continuing to use their service and continuing their existing plans. However, there is no word on how Clear plans to make XOHM user's modems compatible with the network. It could be a firmware upgrade or possibly a swap (XOHM customers would have to return their modems in exchange for a Clear model), but no announcement has been made.

We are standing by like the rest of you, wondering not just how long it will take Clearwire to get service to more cities, but how they will take care of us XOHM-ers!