Some spectrum watchers were disappointed by the results of the recent 700MHz auction. They had grand dreams of Google swooping in, dropping millions of dollars, and picking up a nationwide license that it would use to offer high-speed wireless broadband that could be accessed from any device, would support any application, and which would be resold at wholesale rates to anyone else—"line-sharing" come to wireless. While the dream vanished beneath the cold reality of Google's merely strategic bidding, the basic idea may still come true; Sprint Nextel and Clearwire are promising that their new WiMAX network [1] will support both open access and wholesale access and that it will reach 140 million people by the end of 2010.

A lengthy document filed this week with the FCC asks for permission to merge the 2.5GHz spectrum assets of Sprint and Clearwire into "New Clearwire," the company backed by Sprint, Clearwire, Intel, Time Warner, Google, and Bright House. In the filing, Clearwire makes the case that it will provide true "third pipe" Internet access to home and mobile users at speeds of 6Mbps (and 3Mbps uplink).

The companies involved know how to make the right promises:

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