Clearwire may slow WiMax build to cut funding gap

By Sinead Carew

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Clearwire Corp may build its high-speed WiMax wireless network more slowly than originally planned if credit markets do not improve by early 2010, Chief Executive Benjamin Wolff said on Monday.

Clearwire, whose shares rose 15 percent in Monday's trading, completed its venture deal with Sprint Nextel and other partners on Friday.

Even after getting $3.2 billion from companies such as Intel Corp, Comcast, Time Warner Cable Inc and Google Inc, Clearwire needs another $2 billion to $2.3 billion to build its network.

But because credit markets have deteriorated rapidly since Clearwire announced its plans in May, the company could decide to build the network more slowly if there is no improvement to market conditions.

"If we could raise money in the middle of next year, end of next year, even early 2010 that would be plenty of time to continue on the pace we talked about before," Wolff told Reuters.

Clearwire said in May it planned a network that reaches about 140 million people by the end of 2010 using WiMax, an emerging technology that promises to blanket entire cities with high-speed wireless Internet services.

But Wolff believes the company is more than two years ahead of rivals in building next generation wireless services and consequently could afford to slow down its network plan if necessary.

"If we build more slowly, it causes the funding gap to come down," he said, adding that the slower it builds the network the easier it is to expand into new markets using revenue from existing services.  Continued...