Clearwire introduced Sept. 15 the launch of the company's largest 4G WiMAX application test environment in the Silicon Valley. The developer network, which is a precursor to commercial service planned for the San Francisco Bay Area in 2010, will cover more than 20 square miles in Santa Clara, Mountain View and parts of downtown Palo Alto.

The coverage footprint includes the local campuses of Intel and Google, two investors in Clearwire. Cisco, another major backer of Clearwire, will receive coverage in the coming months as the network expands.

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"We see tremendous potential for true, mobile broadband to act as the catalyst for new and compelling Internet applications that leverage our 4G bandwidth, free of the confines associated with wired connections,” John Saw, chief technology officer of Clearwire, said in a statement. “Our goal is to harness the concentration of developer talent in Silicon Valley and accelerate the pace at which these disruptive services are being developed."

Bright House, Comcast, Sprint, and Time Warner Cable also will join Clearwire, Cisco, Intel, and Google as partners in the Innovation Network with plans to participate in promoting the program and deploying 4G development resources into the network. Additionally, Clearwire announced Sept. 15 that it will participate as a sponsor of the Sprint Open Developer Conference scheduled for Oct. 26-28 in Santa Clara.

Developers using the new WiMax development network can expect to see peak download speeds of up to 10 Mbps, with average download speeds of 3-6 Mbps. Service will be provided free to a limited number of qualified developers leading up to the commercial service launch in this area.

"Mobile broadband is fundamentally changing the way people use the Internet, and 4G networks like Clearwire's have incredible potential," said Larry Alder, mobile product manager at Google.  "We're excited to see how developers will take advantage of this unique asset as Internet users increasingly expect connectivity regardless of their device or location."