Clearwire: We’ll Give You $50 to try WiMAX
With just nine days left in its all-important fourth quarter, Clearwire is offering a $50 gift card to subscribers who sign up before Dec. 31. Why is the $50 significant? 
It might signal a change in strategy from Clearwire, which up until this point has been pretty adamant about not offering device subsidies to subscribers.
While the gift card isn’t a subsidy per se, it does about the same thing since the Clear USB modem is currently priced at $49.99 plus tax. So, like we had suggested earlier, maybe Clearwire is seeing some resistance from folks who don’t want to pony up the full price for a device that they are unsure about. A $50 gift card is essentially a free WiMAX-only modem, so that takes some of the sting out of signing up.
Will the promotion help Clearwire in its goal to sign up 81,000 users this quarter? It can’t hurt — but it may be a sign that the company is feeling some heat and needs to close strong. We’ll know how it turns out in February, when Clearwire reports its Q4 numbers.
