The difficulties associated with rolling out wireless service through WiMax may have claimed the nascent Sprint and Clearwire partnership as a victim.
While both companies plan to continue building WiMax solutions separately, news of Sprint pushing Clearwire aside raises more questions about WiMax deployment than it answers.
An AP report said the partnership would have Sprint’s WiMax service complementing the smaller Clearwire’s offering. The end of the pairing may give Clearwire founder Craig McCaw headaches to complement his sleepless night instead.
“The termination of the agreement certainly dramatically impacts the longer-term financial pressures on Clearwire and its aggressive build-out strategy,” analyst Christopher King of Stifel Nicolaus said in the report.
Though the rollout of Xohm, Sprint’s WiMax service, appeared in doubt a month ago, later news about Xohm indicated it would continue, despite WiMax booster Gary Forsee being pushed out of Sprint’s CEO position.
Few should be surprised at the name mentioned as a possible partner for Clearwire now that Sprint has left the picture. Yes, CNNMoney has invoked the Google name, as Clearwire could handle the deployment and the service while Google does its content and ad serving thing.
