NEW YORK (WiMAX Day). Last week The Wall Street Journal online reported that Sprint Nextel has held discussions with Clearwire Corp concerning a potential WiMAX partnership or joint venture.

The report suggested that Sprint is exploring alternatives that could augment or compliment its massive US$2.8 billion investment in building the world’s largest WiMAX network.

A spokesman for Sprint told WiMAX Day that the company is always looking for ways to unlock asset value for shareholders, and rumours in recent news reports indicate “potential options we might look at [but] there is nothing specific we have to share at this time about future possible actions.”

Sprint has always said that its 2.5 GHz radio spectrum is a significant asset, and the WiMAX network now attached to that spectrum dramatically increases its value. When Sprint announced its investment in WiMAX last year, most analysts failed to understand the logic, or didn’t grasp the esoteric valuations of radio spectrum and how they translate to real-world business models.

Yet it’s quite apparent that the economic value of WiMAX depends on the spectrum. Motorola Chairman and CEO Ed Zander commented last year, “if you’ve got the spectrum you have the gold, you have to figure out how to extract it.” Sprint has figured out how to mine its spectrum, and has built a world-class business model around delivering WiMAX through its spectrum.

Sprint’s challenge now is the painstaking task of building a network. Thus we might surmise that if Sprint and Clearwire are having any discussions, they’re centred on how to join forces to speed the development of their respective networks to cover 100 million POPs by the end of 2008.

This might have been inevitable. Sprint and Clearwire at some point would have joined their networks to allow roaming throughout their expansive territories in America, and the exchange of value-added services. If there is any such engagement afoot for the two operators, it can only be of benefit to their respective shareholders, future consumers and all stakeholders of the WiMAX eco-system.

Now everyone is listening. WiMAX spectrum has quietly become all the rage on Wall Street, separating the ‘haves’ from the ‘have-nots,’ with what one analyst at Deutsche Bank described as “some very serious multiples. WiMAX spectrum is now the ‘must-have’ asset for any modern communications company.”

As the telecom, cable and entertainment industry giants jockey to position themselves for WiMAX partnerships, joint ventures and buy-outs, a consolidation of spectrum owners might soon follow.

Which leaves Sprint sitting pretty. For any company wanting to get in on WiMAX today–and there are many–the problem is that there is precious little spectrum available, and those that have it are quickly seeing their fortunes on the rise.