Clearwire Corp.

In many rural areas, people who want high-speed Internet access have only one option: relatively slow and expensive satellite dishes. Now parts of rural Vermont could get a new choice.

Phone company FairPoint Communications Inc. intends to beam Internet connections over radio waves to homes and business in the state, in what appears to be the largest planned U.S. deployment of "fixed wireless" technology as a substitute for wired Internet service.

Comcast Corp. said Tuesday that its investment in a joint venture to offer mobile Internet access to subscribers could be finalized by the end of the year.

Steve Burke, president of Philadelphia-based Comcast, said the new service would let cable companies offer "wireless data speeds that Verizon and AT&T can't match."

Comcast, the nation's largest cable TV operator, in May joined Time Warner Cable Inc., Intel Corp., Google Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp., Clearwire Corp. and other partners to form a $14.55 billion communications company that will offer high-speed mobile Internet access.

Cablevision Systems Corp. said Thursday it has finished the first phase of its wireless network buildout in New York and remains on track to complete the project in two years.

The diversified cable operator is offering the Wi-Fi service at no charge to its 2.4 million Internet customers at speeds of up to 1.5 Megabits per second, similar to DSL at home.

The company currently doesn't have plans to offer the service to non-subscribers.