Biggest Non-Story at CTIA

Sprint Nextel announcing a reinvigorated WiMax venture with Clearwire, Comcast, Time Warner Google and Intel. There was supposedly an April 1 self-imposed deadline for reaching agreement, and it does appear the deadline passed with no agreement.

That, in and of itself, doesn't necessarily mean a deal won't ultimately be reached, or that a deal is unreachable. Cable operators have been in deals with Sprint before, with arguably meager gains on the operational front. But they know Sprint.

What the cablers might not be so sure about is their wireless strategy. Some might argue that with open networks coming, owning the network might not be crucial. Others, possibly with less justification, might argue that cablers don't actually "get" the importance of wireless.

More plausibly, there remain several issues. Investors probably are not wild about the capital investments. Cable executives traditionally have not been comfortable running services on somebody else's network. Wireless is not necessarily a core competency or a service that can be incrementally grafted onto the hybrid fiber coax network.

Perhaps some worry about betting on WiMAX when the telcos will back LTE. More significantly, perhaps, is uncertainty about the size and customer appetite for all sorts of services that go beyond voice. There is, in fact, almost no reason to build wireless broadband networks capable of 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps if in fact various sorts of new broadband services are not the revenue drivers.

And lots of experienced people probably would have to admit it is not yet possible to outline all the popular new services and business models that will drive fourth generation networks. In the midst of that much uncertainty, executives might not feel a need to rush a decision.