Sprint's Best Chance

Sprint (S) takes a pretty regular beating. Each quarter the news comes out that its integration with NexTel is going badly, and it adds far fewer subscribers that its slightly larger rivals Cingular (T) and Verizon Wireless (VZ)(VOD). All of this has taken its toll on the stock price. Sprint fetches $18.86. A year ago, it traded just under $27.

Sprint’s new WiMax wireless broadband network will be ready in 2008. It may give the company an edge in signing up wireless internet users. The system will cover an area that could serve up to 100 million customers.

But, two years is a long time to wait, and Sprint is tired of Cingular and Verizon kicking sand in its face.

So, it is doing the natural thing–teaming up with the cable companies that want to beat down Verizon and AT&T. The big telecoms are building their fiber networks in the hope of offering voice, TV, and broadband the same way that the cable guys can. The phone folks have one advantage. They can package wireless phone service in as well.

But, that won’t stop cable companies. Comcast (CMCSA), Time Warner’s cable operation (TWX), Cox Cable and the cable operations of the Newhouse family are going to bundle their products with Sprint wireless. The service will be available in 40 markets by the end of this year.

Sprint needed some help. It may have gotten it.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.