WiMAX provider Clearwire announced yesterday that they are introducing a pre-paid WiMAX plan called Rover. While pre-paid services have little to do with enterprise buyers, the description of the product and what has been selling in the WiMAX space offered some interesting insights.
For those unfamiliar with the mobile lexicon, "pre-paid" refers to non-contract cellular plans where the customer pays for their usage up front rather than through a traditional contract or "post-paid" plan. Pre-paid offerings had typically catered to the low end of the cellular market, those that Clearwire referred to as "credit challenged"--now there's a euphemism for you!
Speaking for the company, Clearwire's Chief Commercial Officer Mike Sievert noted that they are seeing a change in the pre-paid segment with the addition of young, tech savvy urbanites who value contract independence along with style and functionality for their devices.
The Rover product offers $5 per day, $20 per week, or $50 per month unlimited access to the Clearwire network; they reiterated the fact that their unlimited plan really is "unlimited" and not limited to the 5 Gbyte per month cap we often find. Two access devices are offered, an 8-user mobile Wi-Fi router called the "Puck" costing $149.99 and a USB dongle called the "Stick" costing $99.99.
One of the most interesting insights came during the Q&A when they were asked if the Puck and Stick also supported 3G service; Sprint’s WiMAX service which is operated by Clearwire combines the two services so users can stay connected when roaming in non-WiMAX areas. Clearwire’s answer was "no", and the explanation was that the "vast majority" of their customers are 4G only.
So it appears that users recognize the limitations of the WiMAX coverage footprint, and the vast majority of the buyers spend the vast majority of their time in WiMAX territory.
However, it is rather ironic that one of the key attributes of the "Rover" customer is that they don't travel much.
