NEW YORK (WiMAX Day). In a meeting this month with investors, Sprint’s interim CEO Paul Saleh reconfirmed post-Clearwire assurances that Sprint has not dropped the ball on its commitment to WiMAX.
Saleh took the opportunity of a UBS conference in New York to explain what Sprint sees as options for WiMAX next-steps. Plans, said Saleh, might now take “multiple forms.”

Sprint Nextel could possibly contribute WiMAX assets to a new entity funded from outside investors, he told the UBS group. Sprint Nextel could purchase services from that entity. In essence, Saleh’s statements point to a desire to maintain a WiMAX plan of action but without having to solely shoulder the steep financial cost of building a multi-billion dollar network. Saleh’s scenario calls for Sprint to buy capacity from the new entity.

Though press headlines churned out news based on those comments that Sprint was mulling a WiMAX spinoff, a Sprint spokesman later stressed that Saleh’s remarks were to cite but one example.

Sprint was simply looking for the most cost-effective way to fund and deploy WiMAX.

Sprint is reportedly sticking by its commitment to deploy WiMAX soft launches in Baltimore/ Washington and Chicago markets this month, with an official launch targeted for next year.