STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER ROBERT M. McDOWELL
CONCURRING IN PART
RE: Sprint Nextel Corporation and Clearwire Corporation; Applications For Consent to 
Transfer Control of Licenses and Authorizations, WT Docket No. 08-94, Memorandum 
Opinion and Order, FCC 08-259
I am very pleased to approve this transaction, which joins together two existing licensees 
to create a new entrant capable of injecting new and meaningful competition into the wireless 
broadband marketplace.  Today’s action paves the way for Sprint, Clearwire and other investors 
to partner to deploy a nationwide wireless broadband network in the 2.5 GHz band, something 
that these companies have not been able to accomplish individually.  New Clearwire will possess 
the spectrum breadth and depth, technical expertise, and financial resources necessary to 
construct a nationwide wireless broadband network.  By rationalizing the spectrum holdings of 
Sprint and Clearwire, New Clearwire is well-poised to create efficiencies, spread the substantial 
business risk, and raise the financing necessary to deploy a competitive mobile WiMax service 
that will deliver advanced wireless services to millions of American consumers.    
I am pleased that today’s order refrains from analyzing this application as if Sprint and 
Clearwire are currently competitors.  Although the potential for such competition is there, this 
approach is not yet ripe given the nascent stage of the converged wireless broadband market.  
Moreover, New Clearwire is a market entrant competing against established players with large, 
existing subscriber bases.  Similarly, with respect to our treatment of the 2.5 GHz spectrum, the 
Commission correctly recognizes that encumbrances and lease commitments make unworkable a 
simple megahertz-to-megahertz comparison of this band with other spectrum bands for purposes 
of our spectrum aggregation screen.  In other words, we’re properly comparing apples to apples. 
I do not oppose the open access and wholesale commitments set forth in this order given 
that the parties offered this approach voluntarily and from day one.  As I’ve said for some time, 
the private sector long ago recognized the weaknesses of walled garden business plans well 
before the Commission started to issue unnecessary mandates in this area.  
I am, however, concurring in part due to the universal service condition imposed here.  
First, this condition is not merger-specific.  In addition, while I may agree with some of the 
universal service policies contained in this order, I see no need to potentially prejudice the 
Commission’s ongoing rulemaking on this important matter.  This is especially the case given 
that I, along with three of my colleagues, have made public our commitment to wrap up our 
work on universal service reform no later than December 18, 2008.  Moreover, the text of 
today’s order is unclear as to whether our action today would be superseded by action in the 
universal service proceeding.    
At the end of the day, the next two years present a unique window for New Clearwire to 
take advantage of its time-to-market opportunity.  I congratulate the company and its investors.  I 
look forward to the day in the not too distant future that WiMax and LTE will compete head-to-
head.
Many thanks to the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and my colleagues for their 
work on this matter.