Deutsche Telekom Rumoured to Be Talking to Clearwire

­Germany's Deutsche Telekom, which was recently rumoured to be mulling a bid for USA based Sprint Nextel is now thought to be sniffing around WiMAX operator, Clearwire - which is 51% owned by Sprint Nextel.

Clearwire said in August it needed $2 billion by year-end to complete its own network expansion, and Deutsche Telekom could provide funding in exchange for access, one of the people told Bloomberg News.

Deutsche Telekom owns T-Mobile USA and has been seeking a route to ramp up the upgrade of its GSM network to support 4G services.

The company is also said to be in talks with MetroPCS, said Bloomberg News, citing one of the people close to the talks, who declined to be identified because negotiations are preliminary. Although MetroPCS is a CDMA operator, it has committed to a LTE launch next year, which offers an upgrade path for T-Mobile USA.

On the web: Bloomberg News

Posted to the site on 23rd September 2009