Speculating on Sprint-Google (Gnet?)

This is entirely speculative, but I find myself wondering about Google's deal with Sprint and what might happen if Google would purchase a controlling interest in Sprint, possibly to the point of a buyout.

First, they'd have to avoid all of the pitfalls of the AOL-TimeWarner merger. I'll leave that to other folks to speculate about.

There would be a culture clash, but Sprint management is apparently happy to handle that.?? The blocked merger with WorldCom would have been really bad, and Sprint should give thanks to the government for blocking it.??The Nextel merger doesn't seem to have done a lot of good.

Google, however, brings a number of assets that would make Sprint's network more valuable, such as long-tail focused advertising via Adsense.??Sprint provides the most forward-looking focus on data services, but with major weaknesses in other competencies.??Maybe it would work?

Given that Google has five times the market capitalization that Sprint does, they would certainly be in the driver's seat. I'm thinking free phone service, ad-based revenue models, Wimax connections, and open device access.??That last one might have to be verified through the FCC.

With free service and open access, the device manufacturers could flock to serving Gnet customers. Their margins and innovation would go up. The innovation would leak into other operators' networks if they didn't want to lose all their customers.