KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Clearwire and Sprint Nextel said Wednesday they will combine their wireless broadband units to create a $14.55 billion communications company.

The new company, which will retain Clearwire's name, will continue developing a mobile network based on WiMax technology, which promises faster speeds than the latest cellular networks for movies, games and other data services.

A group of outside investors, including Intel., Google , Comcast., Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, will kick in $3.2 billion for the new company. The investment is based on a target price of $20 per Clearwire share and will give the companies a 22 percent stake in the new venture.

Clearwire, a Kirkland, Wash.-based startup founded by cellular pioneer Craig McCaw, will also receive an investment from Trilogy Equity Partners, led by U.S. wireless industry veteran John Stanton.

Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint Nextel Corp. will be majority owner with a 51 percent equity stake, while existing Clearwire Corp. shareholders will receive about 27 percent interest.

The new company is looking for a U.S. network deployment reaching 120 million to 140 million people by the end of 2010. Company officials said they'll need up to $2.3 billion more by getting additional investors or borrowing. They also could shrink the size of the network.

Both companies have separately pursued rolling out WiMax networks. They characterized their joint venture as a way to speed along development and adoption of the technology, which could eventually compete with fixed-line broadband.

"The agreement enables us to get to market faster and reach a broader audience than we could have if we went alone," Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel's chief executive officer, told analysts during a conference call Wednesday.

Rivals such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless have eschewed WiMax, opting instead for upgrades to their current wireless broadband networks and a future technology called Long Term Evolution. But Hesse said WiMax is available now and should give the new company a two-year head start in the so-called "fourth-generation," or 4G, telecommunications market.

Clearwire will sell WiMax services back to Sprint and the cable partners, through a "mobile virtual network operator," or MVNO, business model. There are no plans, however, to offer similar access to service providers not part of the joint venture.

The cable companies and Clearwire will also receive current-generation wireless service, called 3G, from Sprint Nextel through a separate agreement.

For Sprint, the deal gets an operational monkey off its back and allows management to return to salvaging its troubled wireless business, which has suffered a steady hemorrhaging of subscribers. It also could quiet critics who consider WiMax experimental and expensive — one estimate had Sprint paying more than $5 billion to rollout the service.

Clearwire gets new capital, infrastructure and broadband spectrum, as well as further validation of its technology.

"We strongly believe that the new Clearwire will be in the best position to succeed in the 4G race," said Clearwire chief executive Benjamin Wolff, who will also lead the new company.

Cable companies Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House will now have the ability to sell wireless services, giving them a potent weapon in their fight to slow customer defections to telephone companies that are now offering video services.

A similar joint partnership between five cable companies and Sprint, called Pivot, collapsed this year. But Hesse said the Clearwire model would do better as it gives the cable partners greater control over branding and rolling out services to the market.

Intel will be able to sell WiMax-enabled computer chips for handsets and laptops and eventually develop chips for a wide range of consumer products, including handheld cameras.

Google will provide local and Web search functions and help develop software applications.

Clearwire already provides wireless Internet service in some parts of the country using a WiMax-like technology. The company had a subscriber base of nearly 400,000 wireless broadband customers as of Dec. 31.

Sprint began tests of its Xohm-branded WiMax service in Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. this year but hasn't released subscriber numbers. A commercial rollout of the service in those markets has been delayed, although Hesse told reporters Wednesday he still expected that rollout this year.