A seven-member consortium including Intel, Google, Comcast and Time Warner Cable has agreed to invest $3.2bn in a new joint venture led by Sprint Nextel and Clearwire to build a 4G nationwide wireless broadband network in the US, based on WiMax technology.

The joint venture will be 51 per cent owned by Sprint Nextel but run as an independent company by a team led by Benjamin Wolff, Clearwire’s chief executive.