SYDNEY (WiMAX Day). Unwired Group Limited today released its half-year results for the period ending 31 December 2006. The company’s customer base in Sydney and Melbourne increased 51% to 63,587 paid subscribers, which delivered an increase in revenue of 46% to A$15.8 million. While the company continues to have losses from operations that resulted in A$14.7 million during the six-month period, it reports that operating costs have been decreased 6% and EBITDA improved 56%. Unwired also reports a “solid cash position” and is presently migrating its network to full WiMAX.

In comparison with other “pure play” WiMAX network operators, such as the Clearwire in America, Unwired appears to be operating on par with its peers. Unwired reports monthly ARPU of A$35 to A$37, and based on publicly available documents, Clearwire shows an ARPU of US$36 to US$38. Using a PPP of -17% on the Australian dollar, Unwired has an ARPU of between US$2-4 less than Clearwire.

Clearwire, which is expected to float on Nasdaq this month with a valuation over US$3 billion, posted a net loss of US$191 million for the nine months ending September 2006, based on revenue of US$ 76.4 million, with 206,000 subscribers, according to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).