Clearwire 4G Active in Denver?

Now this is a pleasant shock. Clearwire's 4G network seems to up and running in central Denver. There has been no announcement that I am aware of, and, in fact, Clearwire has said it would delay Denver construction, as I recall.  But there it is: I am getting a live 4G signal on my Evo. Marvelous.


Since it is rumored that Sprint and Clearwire are in disagreement about whether Sprint should actually be paying Clearwire for service it is unable to provide, the signal activation implies to me that Clearwire and Sprint have reached agreement, at least in Denver.

Sprint says it has 810,000 customers with 4G handsets in areas that have not yet been lit up with WiMAX 4G, yet Sprint still has to pay for those customers, to the tune of about 4.46 per customer, reports indicate.

The more interesting question is how much of Denver already has radios in place, powered up and ready to go. Clearwire originally had been planning to light up the 4G network by the end of 2010, and then backed off. Apparently there are enough Sprint customers in Denver that the lost revenue is more painful than the cost of operating the retail network.