When it debuts, the stock may fetch more, says Scott Sweet, managing partner at consultancy IPOBoutique.com. The shares are likely to debut at $25 to $27, fetching Clearwire as much as $621 million, compared with the $513 million the company initially expected, Sweet estimates. "There's enormous demand," despite a recent equity slump that analysts believe could roil IPO markets, Sweet says.

 

"Unless the market absolutely crumbles, Clearwire is ready to go," he adds. Trusted Pioneer Part of the optimism is based on the track record of McCaw, who more than a decade ago stitched together the first nationwide cellular empire, and then sold it to AT&T for $11.5 billion in 1994. McCaw is hoping to re-create such successes with Clearwire, which has amassed the second-largest chunk of the airwaves best suited to WiMAX services after Sprint Nextel.

 

In February, the company shelled out $300 million for an additional swath of that prime spectrum from AT&T. "McCaw knows what he is doing," says Philip Solis, principal analyst in mobile broadband with consultancy ABI Research. "Spectrum is the most valuable asset in wireless."