Nationwide WiMax plan may be over

Sprint Nextel Corp. and Clearwire Corp. are dropping their agreement to jointly build a nationwide high-speed WiMax network, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Sprint, the third-biggest U.S. mobile-phone company, and Kirkland-based Clearwire had announced in July that they planned to build a network that could potentially reach 300 million customers.

The Journal reported that the complexities of the transaction and the departure last month of Sprint CEO Gary Forsee made it too difficult to reach a final pact, according to sources.

Clearwire, the company founded by cell phone pioneer Craig McCaw, and Sprint had planned to give each other's customers access to their networks and promote the service under one brand; Clearwire shares got a large boost at the time.

Reached late Thursday, Sprint spokesman James Fisher said, "We're just not going to comment on that story." Clearwire did not respond to a phone call.

Clearwire raised $600 million in March by selling 24 million shares to the public at $25 each.