Sidecut Reports

Reading this post at the usually reliable Engadget blog, we are pretty well convinced that a hybrid pocketspot might be the big news Sprint is teeing up next week at CES. Unlike some other folks, who seem convinced a WiMAX phone is in the offing, we’re much more bullish on the WiMAX/EVDO pocketspot (aka mobile router) product being a reality, in no small part because it’s an easier thing to build.

And after all.. the Sprint invite sent out to press and analysts in early December talked about the event being the “hottest spot in Vegas” or some such construction. Why go through such prosaic leaps if you were just announcing a phone? Sounds like a new pocketspot to us, an idea we thought about earlier this month. (Yes, we have been long early on both pocketspots and hybrid plans. Looks like that call was a good one.)

Whatever happens at the Sprint event next week, we’ll be there, and let you know when it happens… but we aren’t banking on using a WiMAX phone to make the call.

Want to try Clearwire’s WiMAX wireless broadband service while you’re in Vegas for CES? Move now and reserve yourself a modem or modem-and-pocketspot combo from local provider Cheetah, which is teaming up with Clearwire to offer WiMAX rentals for as little as $12.50 a day.

So instead of paying exorbitant hotel fees for slow, shared DSL or clogged Wi-Fi — or taking a crapshoot on what will likely be crowded 3G airwaves — you can instead have a mobile connection of between 3 to 6 Mbps on the download side, pretty much anywhere in Las Vegas.

In addition to renting both USB modems (for laptops and netbooks) and desktop modems, Cheetah will also be renting a combo of a modem and Clearwire’s Clear Spot portable WiMAX/Wi-Fi router, which will let you connect a small workgroup of Wi-Fi devices. They are also offering a hybrid modem rental, which will fall back to 3G coverage in case you find yourself out of a WiMAX coverage zone.

Single-day prices, according to the Cheetah site, are $12.50 a day for a USB WiMAX modem, $15 a day for a desktop modem, $17.50 for a modem/portable router combo, and $20 a day for a hybrid 3G/4G modem. Costs per day go down with multiple days, with a 4-day basic modem total hitting $39.84, or less than $10 a day for fast broadband access.

Stay tuned to this bat-channel for a Twitter hashtag for Cheetah CES rental users… we will be happy to collect and publish a list of WiMAX download experiences! UPDATE: Let’s use #CLEAR4RENT and see how many people sign on and how fast they can connect…

With Clearwire budging a bit from its offer-no-device-subsidy stance recently with a $50 gift card offer, it should come as no surprise that its bigger-pocketed partners like Sprint and Comcast aren’t hesitating when it comes to helping users try out the nascent WiMAX services backed by Clearwire’s network.

The latest enticement we’ve seen is a free WiMAX USB modem offer from Comcast, ostensibly for its Philadelphia customers since the screen-grab of the ad we are showing here to the left came from the Philadelphia Inquirer website.

Since we have said before that we think the lack of subsidies has hurt the adoption rate for WiMAX services, it’s not a bad thing for WiMAX proponents to see more promotions, discounts and other subsidy-type offerings. In a continued era of compressed personal budgets, the choice for broadband services is going to be dominated by the big carriers and their traditional cellphone subsidy plans. Until folks figure out that the two-year lock-ins and huge early termination fees make the bargains somewhat dubious, Clearwire and its partners really have no choice but to try to make the entree to WiMAX a bit easier, however they can. A free modem seems like a good way to start.