Sprint and Clearwire announced today that their agreement to create a nationwide WiMAX network has fallen apart, for the stupidest and lamest of reasons: apparently, Sprint is too disorganized to figure it out.
A Sprint spokeswoman tried to put a brave face on the situation, saying, "Sprint is still committed to is WiMAX strategy and expects that to be a part of our future. We are still preparing for a soft launch of WiMAX service by year-end in Chicago, Washington DC, and Baltimore."
Sprint spokesman John Polivka added that, "we terminated discussion with Clearwire surrounding a letter of intent; there was no agreement in place[...]Both companies expect to continue discussion on potential roaming agreements, spectrum exchanges, and frequency management/coordination."
The comment about roaming leaves some hope that Sprint can still knit together a nationwide WiMAX solution. Should you care? Yes, you should care a lot. WiMAX is a disruptive technology, and Sprint spun some great stories about how they were planning to pursue a free, open, Internet-style model with WiMAX rather than the crabbed, cramped, locked-down mobile Internet services that they and the other wireless carriers currently provide. WiMAX was supposed to be in everything, from toys to digital cameras.
Hopefully, Sprint will figure out how to work around this and bust the wireless data world wide open. While there's been a lot of mumblings and moanings around Internet companies buying up spectrum in the future, Sprint has been the only folks with near-term, concrete plans to change the way wireless data works.
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