UPDATED: Clearwire confirms $1.5B in new funding

Clearwire confirmed that it will receive more than $1.5 billion in additional new funding from its investment partners, a day after reports first indicated that the new funding would be forthcoming. The new funds will help Clearwire continue with its aggressive buildout of its mobile WiMAX network. The company, which currently has its mobile WiMAX network operational in 16 markets, expects to extend its coverage to 80 markets by the end of 2010.

Sprint Nextel, which holds a majority stake in Clearwire, will contribute the most new funding, with equity financing of $1.176 billion. Comcast will contribute $196 million, Time Warner Cable will add in $103 million, Intel will contribute $50 million, Eagle River will chip in $20 million and Bright House Networks will provide $19 million. Noticeably absent from that group is Google, which was part of a group of investors that provided Clearwire with $3.2 billion in funding last year.

Google said it will not be providing new financing, and that it could best help the company by working with it on products and strategy. "We have already made a significant financial investment, and at this point we think the best way we can continue to add value is through continued product and strategic cooperation," Google spokesman Andrew Pederson told Reuters.

It's not surprising that Sprint will provide additional funding for Clearwire. In a recent interview with FierceWireless, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said that even in the wake of its acquisitions of iPCS and Virgin Mobile USA, Sprint would be able to give Clearwire more funding. Clearwire CEO Bill Morrow has said that the company wants to find new sources of funding by year-end.  

Clearwire is scheduled to report its quarterly earnings Tuesday after the market closes.

For more:
- see this release [1]
- see this Reuters article [2]
- see this slideshow on Korean WiMAX deployments [3]

Related Articles:
Sprint's Hesse discusses the carrier's growth plan [4]
Clearwire lighting up 11 new WiMAX markets in Q4 [5]
Clearwire CEO: 'We're in the sweet spot' [6]
Clearwire to launch 25 markets by year-end [7]
Clearwire [8] not slowing WiMAX rollout

Article updated Nov. 10 with new information about the funding.