People, WiMAX, Global:In a move which suggests jumping rather than waiting to be pushed, Gary D Forsee, has resigned as Chairman and CEO of Sprint Nextel,a keyplayer in the development of WiMAX. Rumours had suggested that Mr Forsee would be asked to resign by his own board.

Besides its commitment to WiMAX, Sprint Nextel is the USA's third wireless carrier after AT&T and Verizon. The year has been a turbulent one for Sprint Nextel. COO Len Lauer left in summer last year and former Executive Chairman Timothy Donahue went in October 2006. Until a permanent CEO can be found Paul Saleh, Sprint Nextel's CFO, has been named acting CEO.

As if the above-mentioned changes were not enough, board member (for just two years) James Hance has been named a non-executive director of the company.

Reasons for the apparent mess Sprint finds itself in are many in number and have been thoroughly analysed in the world's business press. Sprint has little expertise or previous experience in running a telecoms enterprise. Paul Saleh's background lies in entertainment as he had been CFO of Walt Disney International: the company will be advertising for a new CEO from outside Sprint-Nextel.

Of course, there is always the bottom line figure for this key player in WiMAX/4G technology. Operating revenue for 2007 is expected to be lower than predicted. This in turn may owe something to the merger of Sprint and Nextel in 2005. Operating on different technologies may have created initial difficulties although surely a solution to this challenge would have been considered at the time of merger negotiations. One comment made by Edward Snyder of telecoms analyst Charter Equity is telling: "When Sprint bought Nextel, it was like buying a completely alien technology with no synergy at all... but Sprint figured as everybody else was merging why not them?

The difference in marketing strategies has been noted in some quarters, as Nextel went for business clients and Sprint for consumers. thus begging the question that surely the merger would have successfully covered the whole spectrum of clientele.

Last word must be Walter Piecyk of Pali Research: "The performance of the company has been abysmal for more than a year,"