Clearwire plans pay-as-you-go service

According to a filing from the company, Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) on Monday plans to announce new pay-as-you-go service pricing. The action could significantly expand the carrier's addressable market to those unwilling to sign up for a two-year contract with the WiMAX carrier.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Clearwire said it will unveil "plans to serve a new pay-as-you-go customer segment" on Monday. Whether intentional or not, the filing adds a notable amount of clarity to a press release Clearwire issued Wednesday that promised an announcement regarding plans to "serve a new customer segment." Clearwire's press release Wednesday gave no hint at to the nature of the announcement, but the carrier's SEC filing narrows the scope of the company's plans to the prepaid wireless market. Still up in the air: Pricing for prepaid WiMAX.

Clearwire's plans to target prepaid mobile broadband come as no real surprise: Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) CEO Dan Hesse has said multiple times that the carrier has considered such a move. Sprint is the majority owner of Clearwire and also resells the company's WiMAX service under the Sprint 4G brand.

However, it remains unclear how Clearwire's action will be reflected across its wholesale partners. Along with Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Best Buy (via Best Buy Connect) all resell Clearwire service on a postpaid basis.

Clearwire's move into prepaid could be a response to the actions of regional, no-contract carrier MetroPCS (NYSE:PCS), which likely will launch prepaid LTE services next month.

A Clearwire representative was not immediately available to comment.

For more:
- see this mocoNews article
- see this SEC filing

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