I’m a total of 0% surprised about Sprint-Nextel’s (S) dismal quarterly results. They posted another quarterly loss - a bigger one - for Q1. The reason? Severance charges, and of course, lost customers. They ended the quarter with a million less subscribers than they started with. That slow burn-off of their customer base has been an issue since 2005 when they Sprint bought Nextel.

I’m still baffled why they can’t (or won’t) fix it.

That’s not to say it’s easy to be a mobile service provider. But, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile can do it and at least maintain market share.

What I’m not baffled about is Sprint looking to hook up with Clearwire (CLWR). Clearwire is a mobile broadband company. Their interest in Sprint is using them as a framework on which to build a mobile network using Clearwire’s WiMax technology.

The new company will be called Clearwire, so I’m guessing we’ll see all ‘Sprint-Nextel’ fade away over the next few months. That’s all well and good, especially considering Sprint’s bad karma. My concern is just who’s running the new Clearwire. If it’s Clearwire, great. If it’s Sprint, how can it be any better? The issue was never technology - it was service.

Based on the underlying partners though, I don’t see Clearwire lasting long either…at least not in its present form. Intel, Google, Time-Warner, and Comcast all have money invested in the WiMax partnership. My guess is they’re all test-driving the technology before doing the same on their own….or perhaps before making an acquisition?

Maybe that’s the real value of the new Clearwire - that someone who knows what they’re doing will eventually own the WiMax enterprise. I think it’ll be Comcast, which would be a good move for both parties. Anything to take the service and management aspect out of Sprint’s hand would be a plus; their only asset is that they have some of their customer base left.

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