NEW YORK (WiMAX Day). Clearwire Corporation yesterday filed documents with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering of Class A common stock. The IPO is scheduled for 2007 and is expected to raise up to $400 million.

Earlier this year, Clearwire filed for an IPO for the same amount, and thereafter withdrew the offering in July after Intel Capital and Motorola invested $900 million in the company.

According to the registration statement filed with the SEC yesterday morning, Clearwire has the “the second largest spectrum position in the 2.5 GHz (2495-2690 MHz) band in the United States with a spectrum portfolio that includes approximately 11.5 billion MHz-POPs.”

In Europe, Clearwire own spectrum rights in Belgium, Ireland, Poland, Romania and Spain equal to “5.1 billion MHz-POPs of spectrum, predominantly in the 3.5 GHz band, covering approximately 117 million people.” These figures do not include the 3.5 GHz spectrum awarded Clearwire last week in Germany.

In the first nine months of 2006, Clearwire reported revenue of $76.4 million and a net loss of $191.9 million, according to SEC documents. For the same period in 2005, the company reported revenue of $14.7 million and a net loss of $89.6 million.

Mobility and portability roll-out
The documents filed with the SEC also note that Clearwire presently has $1.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents. The net proceeds from an IPO will be used for expansion of the company’s network, as well as for spectrum acquisitions. The SEC filings note that the IPO proceeds and its current assets will be sufficient to fund the company’s growth over the next year.

One key component of the Clearwire strategy is to enhance its mobile service offerings and portability of current products. The S-1 registration statement indicates that Clearwire will work with equipment vendors to introduce new devices that offer mobile services.

Clearwire also intend to introduce a PC Card from Motorola for its Expedience network services in the second half of 2007 that will enable mobile access to services, and may replace the current modems used for CPE.

A variety of new premium services will soon be offered from Clearwire, in an effort to improve customer retention. Clearwire indicate that it will increase its VoIP service provision, and will also seek to offer applications, public safety and security services.

More WiMAX IPOs
The SEC filings made by Clearwire will be the first in what may be a series of public offerings from WiMAX network operators in 2007. To date, the majority of IPOs related to WiMAX have been for equipment vendors such as Alvarion, Airspan and most recently Redline Communications.

There are now many network operators which, having acquired spectrum and installed networks, are entering their second stage of development, where marketing and customer acquisition will require additional funding more suitable for public markets.

According to Phillipe Lefèvre, a telcoms analyst with investment bank Société Générale, there are several WiMAX networks planning their debut on the public markets next year. “Unwired in Australia was the first big IPO [for a WiMAX operator], but they were very advanced. Now more networks are at the same stage. We’ve seen a lot of deals recently, so we expect in 2007 the markets will be very hot for WiMAX.”