The breaking news today in the mobile industry is not the release of the Sprint Unlimited Everything plans. The news is of the company’s $29.5 billion loss. Granted it has to due with the buyout of Nextel in 2005, but that is still a huge number. It also does not help that they are hemorrhaging customers left and right.

What comes to my mind is this: Is Sprint ripe for a buyout? A few months back SK Telecom offered Sprint a $15 billion investment, but they refused. This was in part because they were in an awkward situation without a CEO. Sprint declined the offer. With all the rumors running around about Google and open access, would it make sense for Google and SK Telecom to join together and raise Sprint from their inevitable doom.

We all know that Sprint is one of the two bigger mobile carriers in the U.S. that joined Google’s Android alliance. Google wants as many phones as possible to have Android on them, so it makes sense to me if they can get a carrier to go strictly Android on all their handsets. SK Telecom is a big WI-MAX supporter and Google is the internet. So the must ubiquitous of the next-gen formats is where both companies want to be. Lets not
forget that Sprint also has another huge backer in the WI-MAX arena, Intel. Intel has invested so heavily in WI-MAX as well, that they also need to help get WI-MAX off the ground.

If in fact Google did win the 700 mhz frequency that means they need somewhere to use it. Starting up their own mobile company is costly , but using an existing one is smart and lucrative. Will we see a joint-venture, a Google Telecom in the near future? Only time will tell.