T-Mobile and Google executives will gather in New York on September 23 to to launch the HTC Dream, the first phone loaded with Google's mobile operating system Android to hit the market. Skeptics, such as ZDNet's Dana Blankenhorn, say the Dream won't be a "real" Android phone. Why the quibble?"It is still just a phone running on a fourth-placed proprietary network," writes Blankenhorn. He says Google won't realize its full vision for Android — "a handheld Internet client running on a true broadband network" — until Clearwire finishes building a new wireless broadband network, backed in part by Google's money. That's supposed to happen by next year, but even Clearwire CEO Ben Wolf is skeptical: "They say the middle of next year. I'll believe it when I see it." Notice how no one's talking about whether the Dream is actually fun to use?

The Google Street View car was Spotted in Microsoft Country last week after launching in many smaller markets around the country first. Apparently the drivers, rather than use some fancy, newfangled Internet doohickey, simply burn the data captured by the rooftop camera array onto a CD and mail it back to Mountain View. The fact that Portland, Oregon and Juneau, Alaska were added to the list of Street View cities before Seattle inspired an April Fools article in local publication Naked Loon quoting a fictional Google spokesmonkey as saying the addition of Seattle was "extremely unlikely, save for some kind of highly localized disaster centered somewhere in Redmond."

Google has invested $500 million in Clearwire, a wireless-broadband venture also backed by Sprint, Comcast, and Craig McCaw, among others. But the search engine won't contribute capacity on its private fiber-optic network to help Clearwire transmit data, a spokesman says. Google currently uses its network to interconnect its datacenters and get cheaper rates from telecommunications companies it deals with. [Unstrung]

Clearwire and new parent company Sprint Nextel certainly share one thing in common — operating losses. In an earnings announcement today, Clearwire posted a 76 percent increase in revenue compared to the same quarter last year for a total of $51.5 million. But while the company's stock tipped up slightly, it ultimately posted a loss of $1.08 per share, thirteen cents higher than analyst expectations. But with investment pouring in thanks to the deal with Sprint Nextel, these numbers may mean little. The real news? "With respect to our recent announcement to combine Clearwire and Sprint's mobile WiMAX businesses to form the new Clearwire, we expect the transaction to close during the fourth quarter of 2008," said Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff.(Photo by AP/Marco Garcia)

Illinois-based iPCS, a wireless affiliate of Sprint Nextel, has sued the number-three wireless carrier in Illinois Superior Court. Its claim that the new company Clearwire, with a majority stake held by Sprint, infringes on that exclusivity agreement signed in 1999. The affiliate successfully sued Sprint over the Nextel merger, with Illinois courts awarding iPCS a victory in March. Meanwhile, Sprint Nextel (as it is officially known) reported $505 million in net losses for the first quarter on an eight percent drop in revenue, thanks mostly to attrition in the number of long-term contract customers. That the company can't get these issues worked out behind the scenes, or at least settle these lawsuits before a punitive verdict is reached, doesn't speak well of the management at Clearwire's new parent company. (Photo by AP/Reed Saxon)

Already "walled off" from any discussion of Apple's iPhone, Google CEO Eric Schmidt could see his role on Apple's board of directors further diminish. Google's interest in wireless hardware powered by Android software and its investment in Clearwire's WiMax network pose apparent conflicts with Apple's interest in 3G iPhones. [BusinessWeek] (Photo AP/Michel Euler)

Negotiations to reform Clearwire, Craig McCaw's wireless-broadband startup, as a consortium backed by Google, Sprint, Comcast and others began as far back as January of this year. By mid-March the consortium had an outline of a deal that made Google the preferred software developer on the WiMax network. Today the consortium, operating under the Clearwire name, is expected to disclose that they are investing $3.2 billion in a nationwide WiMax network, which will eventually be able to deliver a 5-Mbps connection to cellphones and laptops. But what else was Google doing back in January?

Clearwire, the wireless data company started by Seattle-area cell-phone billionaire Craig McCaw, will be recontsituted as a new company valued at $12 billion backed by primarily by Sprint, but also by cable providers Time Warner, Comcast and Bright House, chipmaker Intel and Web search behemoth Google. McCaw will continue as chairman of the board at Clearwire and Ben Wolff as CEO. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse agreed to give control to the pair as part of the deal, to ease concerns that Sprint's core wireless business would conflict as the new company's services began to compete for voice and data customers. Sprint has encountered numerous problems with deploying Intel-developed WiMax, and there's still the issue of whether the company will sell Nextel after a $35 billion acquisition in 2005 went south.

Gizmodo's gearheads got their grabby hands on hot new WiMax-ready gadgets at this week's supersized Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association trade convention in Vegas. WiMax is a sort of turbo Wi-Fi that promises cable modem speeds through thin air. But what will Nokia's N810 connect to? Washington Post financial reporter Yuki Noguchi observed a big black hole on the stage at which the WiMax Singularity had been expected to appear today. It was like Steve Jobs walking on stage at Macworld, reaching into his pocket, and not pulling out an iPhone. I've 100-worded her report.

Intel is reviving ClearWire andSprint's failed WiMax partnership with a much-needed $2 billion investment. Intel has always been WiMax's biggest proponent, spending a ton of money on development and including the technology in its next laptop chip design. This is on top of the $5 billion that Sprint has promised to invest in WiMax over the next three years. [Gizmodo]

Sprint Nextel has revived serious discussions with startup Clearwire to form a joint venture that would bring in funding from the likes of Intel, Google and Best Buy to build a high-speed wireless network using WiMax technology. [WSJ]

Sprint and WiMax startup Clearwire have ended plans to form a joint venture. Supposedly the "complexities of the transaction" and the ouster of Sprint CEO Gary Forsee torpedoed the deal. This leaves a nationwide WiMax rollout for either company very much up in the air. [WSJ]

Sprint is considering a spinoff of its WiMax division, combining it with wireless startup Clearwire, to form a venture with national reach in wireless spectrum. Forming a new company to focus on WiMax would allow backers to bet on it, but keep the huge capital expenditures required from a national rollout off Sprint's books. The cell provider is hunting for a new CEO to replace ousted exec Gary Forsee and is looking to staunch its bleeding of customers. [WSJ]

If at first you don't succeed, be Peter Adderton. Ever since Amp'd Mobile, the troubled wireless carrier, messily declared bankruptcy in June, Adderton, its former CEO, has been trying to plot his own exit strategy. A rumored deal with Qualcomm never materialized, which makes us equally suspicious of MoCoNews's report that Adderton is "close" to joining Clearwire, the broadband-wireless Internet service provider. Why Clearwire would want to get entangled with Adderton isn't clear. Granted, Amp'd Mobile had a hit in "Lil Bush," the mobile-video series that made the jump to the boob tube on Comedy Central. But most ISPs fare poorly in the content business. And even if Clearwire really wants to make a go of it, is Adderton the best possible partner?