THIRD PIPE://Do the math on Clearwire and Current Communications

Check out some recent developments around these two companies:

WiMAX: Clearwire (Craig McCaw)

• $900m funding from Intel and Motorola
• Working on a deal with DirecTV (controlled by News Corp)
• To join the August 9 FCC AWS auction

BPL: Current Communications (William Berkman)

• $130m funding from GE, TXU, Sensus and EarthLink (earlier investors: Google and Liberty Media et al)
• Linked to WiFi through Google and EarthLink (stakeholders)
• To join the August 9 FCC AWS auction in the POP Wireless consortium

Add some cross-links

• Google is a candidate for serving ads on News Corp's MySpace.
• AOL resells Clearwire. Google holds a 5% stake in AOL.
• Lots of speculation around Google's infrastructure efforts (servers, dark fiber, server chips, WiFi access, FON, VPN) to bring the internet closer to the user.
• News Corp wants to buy out Liberty Media.
• Motorola has WiMAX as well as BPL capabilities.

Now do the math.

UPDATE: POP Wireless is on the list of non-qualified bidders for the upcoming FCC AWS auction (#66).