Sprint + Clearwire for WiMAX : New Mobile Broadband Company

Sprint + Clearwire for WiMAX : New Mobile Broadband Company. Sprint and Clearwire announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to combine their next-generation wireless broadband businesses to form a new wireless communications company. Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks will be investing $3.2 Billion into this new company and will split 22% of it among themselves. Clearwire will have will have a 27% stake in the new company and Sprint will control the remaining 51%.

The new Clearwire expects to offer mobile wireless Internet services on a broad array of new devices that will be made possible by integrated WiMAX chipsets, scalable operating expenses and a commitment to an open architecture.

Mobile WiMAX is a standards-based wireless broadband technology designed to operate multiple times faster than today's 3G wireless networks. With embedded WiMAX chipsets in laptops, phones, PDAs, mobile Internet devices and consumer electronic equipment, mobile WiMAX technology is expected to allow users to wirelessly access a range of multimedia applications, such as live videoconferencing, recorded video, games, large data files and more - anywhere in the network coverage area.

Sprint and Clearwire also announced a series of commercial agreements with the strategic investors, including 3G and 4G wholesale agreements. More information is available from Sprint's press release.