Let’s get one point of confusion out of the way right up front. Yes, Clearwire and Sprint have a pending deal to merge their WiMAX efforts. Until that deal is ratified, approved and consummated by a handshake with spit (or approved by regulators, whichever comes first), the two wireless companies aren’t quite married yet. I only raise that up because Clearwire itself is prepping WiMAX service in four new locations.

Portland, Oregon is about ready for testing right now while infrastructure is getting prepped for Las Vegas, Atlanta, and Grand Rapids in 2009. The Oregon area is already built out around 70%, so I’d gather that if the testing goes well, Oregonians will see service availability as early as year-end. Do we have any readers in Portland that are partaking of fast mobile WiMAX connectivity?