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Sprint tossed out its CEO, who had backed a plan to build a WiMAX solution in the US. That plan appears to be in jeopardy. It looks like potential customers for a high-speed WiMAX wireless service called Xohm can forget about the project.

CNet said investors are blanching at the prospect of a $5 billion price tag for a service that could extend mobile and Internet access at speeds better than 3G networks to 100 million people by the end of 2008.

A Sprint spokesperson cited in the report held out a glimmer of hope the next CEO won't stroll in and kill WiMAX:

"I can't speculate about what a new CEO will do," said Leigh Horner, spokeswoman for the company. "But for now, we are continuing to build out the WiMax network. We expect a soft launch of the service by the end of this year and a commercial launch in April of next year."

If it comes to pass that new Sprint leadership dumps the Xohm project, it becomes difficult to see where the promise of real high-speed mobile access will come from, especially if an existing telecom walks away with the 700MHz spectrum auction next year.