Five things you need to know about Sprint/Clearwire

The long-rumored deal is done. Sprint and Clearwire today formally combined their WiMAX businesses, aided by investments from Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.

Here’s what you need to know:

WiMAX has been brought back to life in the U.S. At the recent CTIA show, it was clear that as much as the technology was struggling to lift off at home, it was becoming a force abroad. Telephony’s wireless editor Kevin Fitchard sums it up this way in his story today: “As Sprint has stumbled financially in the commercial launch of its WiMAX network, the future of the technology has been called into question in the U.S. and the WiMAX spotlight has shifted to developing markets in South Asia and Eastern Europe, where the technology is being used primarily as fixed wireless solution.” Those questions are now seemingly answered.

There’s still plenty of work to be done. Landing funding and consolidating the two major players was step one. But building out the network -- initially by continuing onward with Sprint and Clearwire’s existing rollout plans -- will be a challenge. “You have to look at the scale of what we’re trying to do here,” said Sprint chief technology officer and new Clearwire president Barry West, attempting to temper expectations.

AT&T and Verizon should be feeling the LTE pressure. With the funding to achieve a nationwide WiMAX rollout in 2009, Clearwire will beat both of those operators to 4G by at least a full year even if they accelerate their Long Term Evolution plans, and likely by two or three.

There’s probably more wheeling and dealing to be done by Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. Earlier in the week a potential plan to sell off Nextel was floated in the financial press, with an expected price tag of just $5 billion (as compared to the $36 billion Sprint originally spent to buy Nextel). The pressure isn’t off Sprint and Hesse yet by a long shot.

Google has the open access platform it’s been pushing for. It seems no surprise that Google this week was slamming Verizon for supposedly backing off of 700 MHz open access requirements, a charge Verizon denied. With the new nationwide WiMAX network, Google has an open playground on which to roam -- for a pittance of just $500 million (compared to $4 billion-plus for 700 MHz spectrum).

E-mail me at rkarpinski@telephonyonline.com.