Sprint Seeking Ways to Buy Out Clearwire

They took a shot and it didn't work out. They hoped the jump they had with WiMax would give them an edge. Unfortunately, Clear didn't have the money to build out fast enough and Verizon was able to build out so quickly that they lost the advantage before they could gain enough customers.

I'm sure the hope was that WiMax would have such a large base that they could convince some of the regional carriers to adopt it as well. It didn't work that way and they're left with no one they can roam with.

However, they can't just switch overnight. They've been selling Wimax phones and dongles and have to support them for a reasonable amount of time. Fortunately, it's mostly early adopters who will be more than willing to switch fairly quickly, unlike the iDen base.