Sprint and Google announced last week that they will collaborate on a new mobile portal that will provide search, social networking, mobility, location-based and interactive communications tools to Internet customers who use WiMAX. Sprint is developing a nationwide wimax network.

In a press release issued last week, Barry West, Sprint's head of 4G Mobile Broadband effort said: " Google and Sprint will optimize the Internet experience for the digital lifestyle. This collaboration brings what will be the best mobile Internet network together with the leading Internet search company. It allows us to capitalize on the powerful mobility and Internet trends, and create wireless services and applications that take advantage of each company's history of product development innovation."

The collaborative agreement between the companies will pair Google Apps - including Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Talk - with Sprint's emerging location detection and presence services. Sprint will provide open standard APIs to its go-market partners and the developer community. This will enable the rapid development of customized utilities and applications for personalized, interactive services, deliverable to consumers via connection cards, stand-alone modems, laptops, personal media players, PDAs, handheld game consoles and mobile phones. Sprint also intends to make the WiMAX service available to drivers for navigation information, news and entertainment delivery.

The company is already planning WiMAX test markets in Chicago and the Baltimore-Washington DC areas in April of next year, and aims to deliver the service to more than 100 million users by the end of 2008.