Sprint Nextel and Clearwire WiMAX network/service announce partnership

Judgment: It is official. The partnership went through. The community was correct by predicting that this would indeed occur. --The Industry Standard

Sprint Nextel and Clearwire had a WiMAX network infrastructure and spectrum sharing "letter of intent" in place for much of last year but the deal fell apart in 4Q07 due to a number of issues (rumored to be related to revenue sharing terms and network rollout responsibility/timeline differences).

However, both companies continue to build out WiMAX networks in complementary geographies, and particularly since The Wall Street Journal reported in January that talks had resumed and Intel was close to an additional $2 billion investment, speculation has picked up that a new Sprint-Clearwire deal will be struck.

An announcement might be made at the CTIA show in April, as might commercial WiMAX service availability in a couple markets from Sprint Nextel, but given that company's current financial woes, it's possible a new Clearwire agreement won't materialize in the near term.

This is a prediction that a Sprint Nextel and Clearwire WiMAX network/service partnership will be announced before July 1, 2008

Update: The WSJ has it that an announcement is pending in the very near future.