Google Applications Offered by Wireless Service Provider

The company founded by wireless pioneer Craig McCaw yesterday announced that it would probably start offering its customers applications from the Google array, such as e-mail and calendar, as of the second quarter of this year.

The Google services offered by Clearwire will include every implementation a user might find when accessing them with a desktop system, for example Gmail will also have the Google Talk instant message service.

The move is pretty interesting as it comes hot on the heels of Sprint Nextel, the no. 3 U.S. mobile provider, announcing in late November that it was ending the collaboration with Clearwire while letting all their customers know that they would still be able to roam each other company's networks. The one thing the two have in common is that they both use an emerging wireless network technology known as WiMax.

The "roaming" mentioned might have not been enough, so McCow's firm yesterday announced that it would be following in the footsteps of Sprint and signed an agreement with Google. The news upped the price for Clearwire's shares by 25 cents, 1.8 percent, having it stable at 14.24 dollars in the morning Nasdaq trade.

After failing to strike a deal with Verizon, one of the biggest wireless carriers on the North American continent, Google said that it would be pushing into the ranks of the smaller ones in order to gather them all under its flag and work its way up from there. Yesterday's announcement is the best example of that happening, despite the fact that it doesn't follow the Mountain View based company's plan to the letter.

Seeing it in motion just makes me wonder just how longer the big wireless carrier companies will be able to hold a stand against the assault that will be sure to follow when their clients see that smaller firms offer something they don't . Not long, I'm guessing.