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WiMAX, like other new networks that may follow in future, will be all about supporting new business models and industry structures, in order to extend mobile web capabilities to new user bases and applications. This week, the US market highlighted two examples, both small steps towards the potential end game envisaged by Google, of an open IP 'super-network' used on a flexible basis by a host of service providers.

This vision entails a complex web of wholesaler/reseller, franchise and MVNO agreements, and further relationships are likely to be added to the mix as networks mature. The latest examples - more details of Comcast's plans to use the Clearwire network in which it has invested; and an agreement between two US players, AlphaStar International and CTC, that follows the growing trend to combine WiMAX and satellite to attack new markets.

Clearwire, although it is offering services under its own Clear brand, will also support a range of resellers - initially, at least, its major investors, Sprint Nextel, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Brighthouse Networks. Comcast is impatient to get started, it seems, with COO Stephen Burke telling regional newspaper The Oregonian that the cableco will launch services in Portland, where the Clearwire WiMAX network went live recently, by mid-year.

Many of the markets in which Clearwire aims to go live over the coming 12-18 months are key Comcast territories, such as Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle, Dallas and Altlanta. Burke said the company would rebrand the WiMAX service and offer it in various quad play bundles with its wireline voice, video and data plans. This would strengthen its hand against AT&T and Verizon, and enable it to offer a higher speed laptop broadband service than those giants' 3G networks currently can. Mobile data is seeing far higher growth rates in the US than the saturated pay-TV sector, though laptop aircards are taking off more slowly than in Europe.

At the more rural end of the market, AlphaStar and CTC (Computers & Tele-Comm) have created a joint venture to offer WiMAX services in remote areas with satellite for backhaul, and hope to win some broadband stimulus money to support their plans. The hybrid system, with the partners sharing risk and profits, represents an increasingly common pattern in the WiMAX world, and one already adopted in the US by GlobalStar. The service will use the AlphaStar Teleport, which will keep backhaul costs low, according to CTC. Low cost radios can be used rather than a two-way satellite receiver at customer premises and the Teleport can support video and audio streaming.

"The hybrid model can be deployed within weeks to months (depending on scope), serves underserved and unserved areas, and offers immediate employment as intended by the legislation," said John Wahba of AlphaStar in a statement.

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