Well, we said it was Game On, WiMax [1], and now we know the when: According to Sprint/Clearwire WiMax guru Barry West, the “new” Clearwire network will officially launch this September [2] in Baltimore, followed by Chicago and Washington D.C. in the fourth quarter.

As I told a reporter here at the NXTcomm show [3], nothing beats proof of concept [4] and the sooner the better for the New Clearwire as its battle against the still-under-development technology LTE gets underway. More thoughts on WiMax when we get back from Viva Las Vegas and the resurgent NXTcomm show, which by all show-floor accounts was much more vibrant than last year’s event in Chicago.

Paul Kapustka is the editor of Sidecut Reports [5], which has recently published an updated report [6] on the state of WiMax deployments in the U.S., focusing on the new Clearwire deal.