After spending nearly $7 billion building its 3G wireless network and waiting for government agencies to finally clear the spectrum it needed, T-Mobile USA today flipped the 3G switch in the New York market.

Before we had Redfin, Zillow and Estately, a little company in Bellevue called Real Tech was building fancy Web tools to search, market and display online real estate listings.

Qwest just announced that it's switching wireless partners, meaning that the cellphone service you order from Qwest will be provided by Verizon instead of Sprint starting this summer.

Today's column looked at how Paul Allen's early bet on Starwave led to Disney running its Internet group in Seattle.

Looking back, it seems Allen's investment in Starwave did more to build a tech industry cluster in Seattle -- around online media -- than his more focused effort to develop a biotech hub in South Lake Union.

Part of it is timing. Starwave caught a wave that was just rising, while the proliferation of biotech ventures crested before Allen finished developing most of the offices in the area.

Now Starwavers are managing or running other online ventures and Allen's South Lake Union development is full of condominiums and offices mostly rented by existing companies in other industries, including Microsoft, Group Health, Amazon.com and Tommy Bahama.