Google, Sprint team on WiMax mobile services

John Blau

As part of its strategy to increase its presence in as many Web-enabled mobile devices as possible, Google Inc. has agreed to collaborate with Sprint Nextel Corp. to offer a range of Internet services to users of the U.S. operator's planned new WiMax network.

The two companies announced an agreement on Thursday to bring Google services, including search, e-mail, calendaring and social networking, to customers of Sprint's wireless broadband network, slated to launch in early 2008.

Under the deal, Sprint will provide open standard APIs (application programming interfaces) to developers to allow the Internet services to run on a range of WiMax-enabled devices, including notebook computers and phones.

But analysts were quick to point out that the cooperative agreement doesn't exclude the two companies from competing against each other down the road.

"It's an absolute no-brainer" for Google to increase its presence in the wireless sector by working with as many operators as possible and helping them customize services," said Andy Buss, principle analyst with Canalys.com Ltd. "But Google is looking to become an operator in its own right."

Buss pointed to Google's interest in acquiring spectrum in the U.S.

"It would be good for Google to control its own platform," he said. "They need to make some risk-sharing investments in the underlying networks to have a say in how they're architectured and developed."

In Europe, Buss didn't rule out the possibility of Google becoming a mobile virtual network operator, piggybacking on existing networks. This approach, he said, would allow the company to establish a "consistent" level of expertise across highly fragmented Europe.