Passed along without comment, the third of five videos produced by Sprint comparing the merits of the Instinct from Samsung with the first-generation iPhone from Apple.

Sprint is planning to begin selling the iPhone challenger next month. While a price hasn't been set, expect the tag to be around $200 with rebates.

Other videos compared download speeds and navigation.

Sprint Nextel will release its first-quarter earnings Monday before the market opens, and follow that up with an earnings call with Wall Street analysts.

We'll listen in and blog live, starting at 7 a.m.

Sprint already has told Wall Street to expect the company to lose 1.2 million, or perhaps more, subscribers.

In the meantime, what's the betting line? How did Sprint do during the first three months of the year?

If they can’t buy Sprint, maybe the executives running SK Telecom will settle for Sprint’s wholesale partner, Virgin Mobile USA.

This is the
new report coming from moconews.

The publication says that Virgin Mobile is considering a merger with Helio. Or Maybe SK Telecom would buy Virgin, then Virgin would turn around and buy Helio under another scenario under discussion, according to the report.

Sprint joined with Richard Branson’s Virgin Group to create Virgin Mobile. Helio, founded by Sky Dayton, is controlled by SK Telecom. Both wireless companies sell their own brand of service that runs over Sprint’s network.

Sprint has posted four more videos comparing the Instinct, Sprint's soon-to-be-released handset from Samsung, with the Apple iPhone.

In this video, Sprint compares Web surfing speeds using the Instinct and the first-generation iPhone. The video shows the Instinct, using the Sprint network, pulling up a Web page much more quickly than the iPhone, using the legacy AT&T network.

Cablevision Systems, a cable TV provider that serves more than three million customers in and around New York City, is planning a high-speed wireless network of its own.

The company said today it will develop a mesh network using Wi-Fi technology. The company already has developed the network is a few communities, and plans to complete it within two years, Thomas Rutledge, Cablevision's chief operating officer, said during a call with financial analysts.

The network will be free for Cablevision customers. He said the network could eventually support voice calling.

The network will only serve the New York City area.

Rene Obermann, chief executive of Deutsche Telekom AG, said today he won't comment on rumors his firm is considering a bid for Sprint Nextel.

In a conference call with financial analysts this morning, Obermann said the company doesn't talk about takeover rumors. He added that the company is focusing on its growth plans in Greece.

"I'm not going to nourish any of these numerous speculations," Obermann said.

Deutsche is working with the government of Greece to expand its ownership of Hellenic Telecoms Organization, the national mobile company there also known as OTE.

"We hope to get this OTE thing done, and then we will have quite a bit of work to get OTE integrated," Obermann said.

T-Mobile, the No. 4 carrier owned by Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG, added 981,000 subscribers in the first quarter.

The mobile company added another 1.1 million customers with its completed purchase of SunCom Wireless, and now has 30.8 million customers, T-Mobile said as Deutsche reported its first-quarter financial results.

T-Mobile said the customer additions during the first three months of the year bettered both its fourth quarter results and its results from a year ago.

Churn, the number of customers who leave the service each month, dropped to 1.7 percent. Average revenue per user dropped from $52 to $51.

There already is data aplenty on the Net detailing Clearwire v.2, a new Nasdaq-traded company that will be owned by Sprint Nextel, Clearwire, Comcast, Intel, Time Warner, Google and others.

In announcing the deal, executives held a conference call with Wall Street analysts and posted a slide presentation with some data on the new company. It's online here.

Sprint also filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The 161-page "transaction agreement and plan of merger" is onl

Dan Hesse isn’t being given much time to bask in the glow of completing a massively complex and potentially promising WiMax deal.

Sprint Nextel’s CEO said figuring out what to do with Sprint’s high-speed wireless WiMax project has been among his front and center priorities since taking charge of the company in December.

He chalked up a major accomplishment with Wednesday’s announcement of a $14.5 billion deal that will involve Clearwire, Intel, Google and Comcast, just to name a few of the high-tech glitterati involved.

Yet, Hesse hadn’t even completed his conference call this morning with Wall Street analysts before he was hit with a question of whether Sprint would have to wait for any mergers-and-acquisition activity before the WiMax transaction is completed later this year. Sprint was the subject of heated speculation earlier this week that Deutsche Telekom, the parent of T-Mobile USA, was eyeing the Overland Park wireless company as a takeover possibility.

Sprint's mega-deal with the tech industry to build a new WiMax company will have some ancillary benefits for Sprint's traditional mobile phone customers.

After being shoved aside a couple of years ago, Google search will be the preferred search engine on Sprint phones, the two companies announced today.

Sprint also will add access to Google Maps and YouTube on video-enabled phones.

"Google and Sprint have a lot in common when it comes to our vision for the mobile web," Doug Garland, vice president of product management at Google, said in a statement. "We both believe in openness and providing compelling, easy-to-use mobile services that consumers can use every day. We look forward to working together to deliver a great experience."

The new Clearwire – the company Sprint Nextel is forming with Craig McCaw’s Clearwire Corp. – is aiming for a network deployment that will reach up to 120 million to 140 million people in the United States by the end of 2010.

The long-anticipated news about how Sprint CEO Dan Hesse would capitalize on his company’s WiMax wireless technology advantage finally has arrived. Hesse has crafted a deal drawing more than $3 billion from the likes of Google, Intel, Comcast and others.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting this afternoon that Sprint and Clearwire have agreed to a $12 billion deal to build out a nationwide high-speed wireless network.

The newspaper reported that the deal, which could be announced Wednesday, calls for Sprint to merge its wireless broadband operations with Kirkland, Wash.,-based Clearwire.

The venture reportedly has received a total of $3.2 billion in financial backing from Comcast Corp., Intel Corp., Time Warner Cable, Google Inc. and others.

The venture will use the Clearwire name, The Journal reported. The venture was valued at $12 billion.

Not that long ago, Nextel was a shining star in the wireless industry.

Lately it is being treated more like a dangerous exploding supernova.

The potentially dynamic duo created by bolting together Sprint and Nextel a few years ago generated excitement on Wall Street. Many analysts said the company would be the one to beat in the wireless industry.

Today, obviously, that Nextel star has dimmed considerably. Sprint started the year by announcing a $29 billion write off to reflect the declining value of the Nextel purchase.

The Nextel side of the company lost 2.8 million customers on monthly calling contracts just in 2007.

Sprint will kick off its $100 million marketing campaign for the Sprint Instinct Thursday with a series of videos comparing the Samsung-manufactured Instinct to the Apple-manufactured iPhone.

This video, the first of five to be released by Sprint, compares navigation features of the two phones.

The video shows the Instinct pulling up better maps more quickly.

Other videos will compare Instinct-iPhone Internet speeds, shooting videos with the two phones, watching live TV and downloading music.

Qwest Communications International today said it will move its wireless phone customers from the Sprint network to Verizon Wireless.

Qwest said earlier this year it was considering a change because the company was not satisfied with the phones, advanced technology and other opportunities coming through its deal with Sprint.

Qwest had about 824,000 wireless subscribers earlier this year. Sprint counts those customers among its 53.8 million subscribers.

Qwest's agreement with Sprint runs through next February. However, a Qwest spokesman said the company will begin selling Verizon Wireless service this summer.