and its majority-owned business are reportedly embarking on an ambitious plan to set up a nationwide WiMAX network in the U.S. through strategic partners.

Craig McCaw's wireless broadband company that recently raked in $900 million from Intel and Motorola to deploy WiMAX nationwide maybe in the spotlight. Sources say News Corp. and DirecTV are in advanced talks with Clearwire for a project that could take at least two years and $2 billion to provide News Corp.

and DirecTV with a valuable wireless interactive broadband loop the companies can use to sell content, goods, advertising and services directly to consumers.
Talk about a significantly better business case for WiMAX and for Clearwire, which is positioning itself as just another broadband service provider. With its valuable property, News Corp.

has been rumored for some time to be interested in WiMAX, with some thinking it might build its own network or bid in the upcoming advanced wireless services auction.
It is the powerful, anywhere-anytime wireless connection that News Corp. aims to maintain with the core younger consumers of MySpace and its TV channels.

In the process, News and DirecTV could leap ahead of many broadband distributors.
Having its own interactive pathway to consumers in the U.S.

would put News Corp. in an elite class of major content providers that also own their own broadband platform that now includes only , which boasts the Time Warner Cable pipes and a wealth of production, distribution and archive assets.


WiMax, which is short for World Interoperability for Microwave Access, also promises to provide more security and speed.

McCaw, a cellular pioneer who sold his former company to a decade ago, has looked to and to more than doubled the financial resources he planned to raised from going public with Clearwire, which he launched in 2003. That nearly $1 billion in funding is enough to deploy WiMax in several U.S.

cities. Clearwire already provides WiMax service to several hundred cities in the U.S.

, Mexico, Ireland, Belgium and Denmark.