Red Herring's Cassimir Medford today looks at the state of WiMax after last week's Clearwire IPO.

Forrester Research analyst Phil Sayer says this will make it harder for other WiMax startups in the future. "Clearwire has brought into focus questions that should always have been asked about WiMax, but now market reality has spoken," he says.

"And reality has spoken loudly," Medford writes. "Since it debuted at $25 last week, Clearwire's shares (CLWR) have fallen to as low as $19.52 in only three days of trading. Shares of the company rose $0.58 to $21.97 in recent trading on Tuesday, however."

"WiMax requires a clear line of sight, so in uneven terrain it will require more towers to achieve maximum coverage and bandwidth," Medford writes. "More towers add cost. In the fixed market where DSL and cable modems have set consumer prices as low as $15 per month for broadband service, that's a problem. On the mobile side, WiMax is competing with cellular broadband, which has also set a relatively low consumer price ceiling."