Shares in Sprint Nextel and Clearwire rose yesterday on reports that the companies were in talks with the two biggest US cable companies over sharing the costs of building of a nationwide broadband wireless network based on WiMax technology.

Sprint's shares were up as much as 8 per cent in early trading before easing back to close at $6.65, a rise of 3.6 per cent, while shares in Clearwire, which is already deploying WiMax technology in some markets, were up 9.7 per cent at $14.69.