First is said no way, today it says maybe. Sprint is going to test and experiment with Flarion’s 4g wireless technology, according to this report. Speaking at a Lehman Brothers’ conference, Sprint Chief Operating Officer Len Lauer said that his company will be looking at various options for its high speed wireless mobile data service and expects to reveal its technology choice within two months.

bq. Sprint said in the past it favored waiting for an even faster technology known as EV-DV, but this will not be ready for commercial use until about 2006, analysts believe. Lauer said Sprint is considering EV-DO and EV-DV as well as a technology from start-up Flarion Technologies that its smaller rival Nextel testing. Sprint has set a 2004 capital equipment budget of $4 billion for its wireless and wireline business. It has said next year’s budget would be at similar levels, including $500 million for a network upgrade.

What are the odds, that Lucent buys out Flarion within 12 months?