Sprint Nextel quietly leaked word last week that it was “in talks” with Comcast and Time Warner Cable to re-ignite its WiMAX plans with big investment dollars. The story showed up in the Wall Street Journal, then the rest of the pack followed.
But Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, now featured in national ad spots as predicted on this blog in November, was silent on the topic during his CTIA speech Monday in Las Vegas. The lack of WiMAX news in front of an influential press audience begs the question: Is the whispered-about venture for real? Rolling out infrastructure with a price tag of $5 billion won’t be easy.
PR lesson: Be careful about hyping something in advance of the largest U.S. trade show for your industry unless you’ve got the goods. Letting the pundits down also hurts credibility for the next news tip or embargoed release.
Leave a Reply