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Nov. 10, 2009

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Sprint Nextel and other wireless carriers are getting ready to inject a minimum of $1.5 billion into Clearwire.

Sprint would kick in $1 billion, while Clearwire investors Comcast, Intel, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks would provide an additional $500 million.

This time however, Google isn't contributing to the new round of financing.

Google had previously invested $500 million in the company and later took a $355 million writedown on the deal when Clearwire's stock price suddenly tumbled by more than 40 percent.

Clearwire is currently in the process of building out a nationwide mobile Wi-MAX network and says it's very well on track to cover over 120 million people in 80 markets by the end of next year.

Already, Clearwire has burned through between $1.5 billion and $1.9 billion in 2009 alone to build out its network.

A spokesman for Clearwire declined to comment on the report. More news of the deal may come out in Clearwire's third quarter earnings report, which is slated for 4 p.m. EST today.

Sprint didn't reply to requests for comment by press time.

The company's 4G service is currently available in several markets, including Las Vegas, Chicago and Portland.

Clearwire investors Sprint and Comcast are currently reselling the service under their own brands, and Time Warner plans to follow suit in December.

Almost a year ago, Comcast, Intel, Time Warner Cable, Google and Bright House Networks invested $3.2 billion into Clearwire.

Sprint then handed over its Wi-MAX assets and is the company's majority shareholder.

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Source: The Wall Street Journal.