SprintNextel and Clearwire Partner For WiMax Push

The road to a nationwide WiMax roll out has beenlong and hard. SprintNextel has been having a hell of a time trying to get the long distance wireless broadband standard off the ground, but with today's news of a partnership with wireless ISP Clearwire it appears that momentum is in the works. Although the agreement is little more than a letter of intent today, the far reaching arrangement would secure roaming agreements, and joint development in the areas of infrastructure, products and services. Interestingly enough, the only caveat here seems to be the customary joint blessing of the Department of Justice and the FCC for the 2.5GHz spectrum shuffle they have planned.

In case you're wondering about the potential benefits for us non-shareholder consumers, SprintNextel Chairman Gary Forsee laid out them out in the original press release:

"This arrangement will result in stronger competition in the rapidly growing market for broadband services, and will provide consumers, national enterprises and other businesses, educators and public safety agencies greater choice and faster access to a revolutionary mobile broadband technology. It will further our objective of delivering mobile WiMAX service across the country and help fulfill our vision of delivering mobility products and services across all our networks."

I'm always prone to cringing whenever a telco tries to tout the importance of competition. Not that competition in the broadband market isn't warranted per se, but hearing the message from an entity who most likely has no qualms with ruthlessly dominating the market doesn't exactly win me over. For some insight into the details of this new partnership, feel free to catch the replay of the announcement conference call by dialing (800)
642-1687 and entering the replay ID number 10285364.

Pictured Above: SprintNextel Chariman Gary Forsee