High-speed Internet provider may offer wireless service in Lynchburg

Clearwire, a wireless high-speed Internet provider on the forefront of WiMAX Internet technology, has bought a license that would let it offer its service in Lynchburg.

Although the purchase doesn’t mean Clearwire has made a final decision to serve Lynchburg — it currently serves three cities nationwide — it has expressed interest in the city before.

WiMAX is a fourth-generation wireless Internet technology that is similar to WiFi networks set up in homes and businesses, but it has a longer reach and stronger security features. Appomattox is the only part of the Lynchburg region that has a WiMAX service.

Clearwire Corporation, based in Washington state, recently bought several wireless licenses from Oneida Communications Group, including a license for the wireless bandwidth in Lynchburg. Oneida owned the licenses but was not providing WiMAX service in Lynchburg.

Nick VanWingerden, an information technology project manager at Liberty University, said it is common for companies to buy WiMAX licenses as investments and sell them as the market grows.

Last year, LU and Virginia School of the Arts began looking for a company to lease educational wireless spectrum from and use the spectrum to provide WiMAX service in the Lynchburg area. Clearwire submitted a proposal for that project.

The schools postponed selecting a company because Clearwire and Sprint were merging their mobile broadband businesses, and LU officials wanted to see whether Clearwire would change its proposal.

The merged broadband business, which kept the name Clearwire, expects to build the first nationwide WiMAX network. Clearwire still has a proposal for the LU and VSA WiMAX project.

VanWingerden said the schools are negotiating with bidders on the price of their spectrum. Also, they want to make sure the company they choose will use the spectrum to provide service, and not just hold it as an investment.

“We want to do our due diligence in researching each of the companies that have bid on it and make sure that what they say they’re going to do with it is what they’re going to follow through with,” he said.

Clearwire now provides WiMAX service in Portland, Ore., Atlanta and Baltimore. It is pre-selling its service in Las Vegas.

When the company bought wireless spectrum in Lynchburg, it also bought licenses in Parker Grove, W.Va., Salisbury, Md., and Santa Barbara, Calif.