I think it is unlikely that Apple would buy Sprint. It is an extremely US centric option, and whilst Apple's home is the USA, they are a global company.
Clearwire is a little more likely, but WiMax is just not matching the performance:power ratio that LTE is offering.
As the article points out, the expense of a network build is mostly in the land for towers (and the backhaul from tower site to network point-of-presence - sometimes 100s of miles of fiber/microwave links). Buying Clearwire still lands it with a lot of cruft that they don't need.
So the third way, unmentioned by the article, is that Apple goes into a joint venture with a cell co. Joint ventures for infrastructure sharing (site, tower, power on site, security, etc.) have long been established in the UK and other EU countries (site sharing is used everywhere, but often only on a site by site basis, with tower sharing not always happening).
Also in the UK market we've seen consolidation on the radio access network front. Everything Everywhere is the network operator for two UK cell co's. At the moment they still operate their own backend networks, but roaming between the two is free.
If Apple were to go to Sprint/Clearwire with a proposal to create a infrastructure or radio access network sharing operating company, this is a win for all - reduced costs for the existing service provider (giving a competative advantage) and access to Apple to build out their own iNetwork.
Clearwire is a little more likely, but WiMax is just not matching the performance:power ratio that LTE is offering.
As the article points out, the expense of a network build is mostly in the land for towers (and the backhaul from tower site to network point-of-presence - sometimes 100s of miles of fiber/microwave links). Buying Clearwire still lands it with a lot of cruft that they don't need.
So the third way, unmentioned by the article, is that Apple goes into a joint venture with a cell co. Joint ventures for infrastructure sharing (site, tower, power on site, security, etc.) have long been established in the UK and other EU countries (site sharing is used everywhere, but often only on a site by site basis, with tower sharing not always happening).
Also in the UK market we've seen consolidation on the radio access network front. Everything Everywhere is the network operator for two UK cell co's. At the moment they still operate their own backend networks, but roaming between the two is free.
If Apple were to go to Sprint/Clearwire with a proposal to create a infrastructure or radio access network sharing operating company, this is a win for all - reduced costs for the existing service provider (giving a competative advantage) and access to Apple to build out their own iNetwork.