Despite Intel Investment, Speakeasy Ditches WiMAX
About a year and a half ago, the ISP Speakeasy got itself quite a bit of press when it held a press event at the top of the Space Needle in Seattle to announce the launch of its pre-WiMAX network there, which used the attraction as a location for one of its antennas. It raised a lot of fuss, but apparently the service wasn't all it was cracked up to be: it required a truck roll for decent installation, and Speakeasy didn't have the resources for it. Now, the company says it's sold the Seattle network and the rest of its wireless business to Towerstream, a wireless ISP. In 2004, Intel's VC arm put some money into Speakeasy, basically to get it to use WiMAX -- as it's done with other operators, like Clearwire and Pipex, and even other chipmakers like Beceem. Wonder if they'll be asking for a refund from Speakeasy...Filed Under: wimax