Continuing with their phased rollout plans for WiMAX, Clearwire has announced that it is preparing to launch the service in Atlanta next month. The company has begun accepting online orders and has posted a coverage map of what will be their largest market to date, with over 3 million new subscribers expected in the city. This is the first of several rollouts planned for 2009, which includes both Chicago and Las Vegas in the summer followed by five additional markets before the end of the year.

The company, which is 51% owned by Sprint Nextel, already offers its WiMAX service in Portland and select areas within the city of Baltimore and is currently in a race against Verizon's 4G technology, Long Term Evolution. This technology is expected to debut by the end of the year, with wider commercial service rolling out next year to compete with WiMAX for 4G wireless broadband connections.