Clearwire started offering services in Minneapolis and St Paul this week. (My house qualifies and I am seriously considering giving them a try.) Here’s a quick description of their service from the Clearwire web site:

Clear has built a brand new WiMAX network that covers entire cities with super fast mobile internet. With average speeds of 3 to 6 Mbps and bursts over 10 Mbps, WiMAX allows you to stream movies, play online games and video chat on the go.

According to a recent article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune…

Clearwire has positioned cell-phone-like towers and rooftop antennas around the Twin Cities to serve an area roughly bounded by the Interstate 494-694 loop, plus a scattering of areas to the north, including Anoka, and south, including Apple Valley. However, within the Twin Cities there are some significant coverage gaps, notably in southwest Minneapolis and the southeastern Twin Cities suburbs. Abler said network construction is continuing, and coverage should be improved by the end of November.

So this isn’t a big player outside the Twin Cities. But it expected to reach a new kind of customer (again according to the Star Tribune)…

Gary Arlen, a telecom analyst in Bethesda, Md., predicted it will have more impact with phone customers, “especially young phone customers who are focused on cutting the cord to legacy phone service.” Clearwire’s 4G phone service can provide faster Internet access, video and cheap Internet voice calls, he said.

I think this is a growing market segment and in an interesting way I think it opens a door to a new market segment – the folks who don’t have, nor do they ever plan to have, a computer. They may be able to leap frog desktops and laptops and head right into using a handheld device. You don’t need to be able to type, which I think is one barrier, and they are becoming easier to use and cheaper to own.