We just announced today that Ericsson, the industry leader in managed services, will manage the day-to-day operations of the Clearwire 4G network. The seven-year, managed services partnership will allow Ericsson to implement their proven global best practices in network management while allowing Clearwire to focus on increasing operational efficiencies and reducing operating costs.

So what does this mean for the folks that built the nation’s first 4G network? We’re happy to report that approximately 700 Clearwire employees are expected to begin performing their network functions as Ericsson employees in locations around the United States before the middle of this year. This also means that network performance isn’t going to suffer because the work we’re seamlessly transitioning to Ericsson will still be performed by the same skilled and talented network employees who perform the work today.

What about our customers, you say? As we just mentioned network performance won’t be an issue so they’ll still have the same great 4G experience. But also, customers will see no change in their interactions with Clearwire because we will remain the priority point of contact. (The same is true for our wholesale partners and vendors.)

As for the significance of this anouncement? We want to direct your attention to a third-party perspective that we found to be quite profound.

“This managed services partnership is the next logical step for both Clearwire and Ericsson, one that will have significant near -term and long-term benefits for Clearwire’s employees, customers, retail distributors and investors,” observed Berge Ayvazian, Senior Consultant with Heavy Reading. “It also represents Ericsson’s second managed services contract in the U.S., building on the Network Advantage agreement that has already delivered major operational and economic benefits for Sprint.”

In short, while we have entered into an agreement with a company whose core competency is network excellence, Clearwire will continue to own our 4G network and remain responsible for network design, network strategy, vendor selection and long-term investment decisions. Our network is still ours – Ericsson is just managing it – allowing us to streamline the business and deliver a high-quality mobile broadband experience to our customers.

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We couldn’t be more proud of the work our employees accomplished and the success our company experienced in Q1 of 2011. It was a record breaking quarter for Clearwire! More than 1.8 million new customers started riding the 4G wave. A sure sign that net surfers are just like their ocean counterparts – they like it fast, they like big pipes, and they like instant gratification.

Our retail and wholesale teams knocked it out of the park this quarter. We now have a subscriber base that consists of 6.15 million  - 1.29 million retail subscribers and 4.86 million wholesale subscribers – who are using and enjoying our 4G service. Year over year, not only has our customer base exponentially grown (533% from last year) but the amount of data usage has grown right along with it. Since the beginning of the year, our network has experienced a 40% increase in network usage due to expanded coverage, record subscriber growth and higher usage per device.

And that’s music to our ears because as COO Erik Prush said, “We have the capacity required to deliver a truly next generation wireless broadband experience.”

You may have read that our network team has been busy expanding the Clearwire network in markets across the country, bringing the real 4G experience to hundreds of thousands more residents and businesses. As it stands our coverage reaches approximately 130 million POPs today, which is earlier than we had projected. So we are super excited that our super-fast mobile broadband service is reaching such a huge number of people at this stage of the game.

We are moving full steam ahead. The next three quarters are going to keep all of us here at Clearwire very busy. But with the demand for mobile broadband internet access increasing coupled with our rich spectrum holdings, we believe our mission is right on target. We look forward to sharing with you our progress throughout the year so keep coming back.