AT&T Phone Company is once again challenging the imminent merger of Sprint Nextel with Clearwire, whose aim is to merge both companies’ WiMax assets in order to create a nationwide broadband wireless network.

This merger would be huge for Wimax, estimating a deal worth 14. 5 billion dollars, and is promising to be a huge success. Just ask Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), all companies who are currently backing this magnanimous merger.

This union would be a grave threat to AT&T’s future success and longevity as a company, and therefore they are claiming that Sprint and Clearwire are “failing to make the required showings necessary for the commission’s review.” They are hoping that this new claim against Wimax would prohibit the FCC from approving its launch.

AT&T clearly understands the importance of mass mergers, seeing as how the company exists today solely because of a mergence between their company and Bellsouth. This alliance has allowed AT&T to grow and reach profound heights in profit margins and overall global accessibility. The same could all too easily occur as a result of the coalition between Sprint and Clearwire, an outcome that obviously leaves AT&T worried.

And AT&T has more than one reason to be nervous about the Wimax wireless network. AT&T is currently working on their own 3G wireless technology, but it is still light years away from the technology currently being deployed by the Sprint and Clearwire union.

With advanced technologies and unparalleled support from large corporations such as Intel and Google, it is no surprise why AT&T is scared about its ineludible launch.

The WiMAX Forum has recently granted eight mobile WiMAX products with their certified seal of approval. According to Dr. Mohammad Shakouri, WiMAX Forum Board Member and Vice President of Marketing:

This is a major milestone for WiMAX Forum. The industry has moved from standardization, to the products, and now commercialization…The biggest challenge for the industry was the ecosystem of vendors building products that can work with each other in a real open environment. This was the biggest hurdle that the industry was able to overcome, to be able to get multivendor products, and building real products. Overall we are seeing good industry traction. We are excited that after all of these years, we are now starting to see real products. This is the proof, the industry is maturing, and we’re not talking about paper works anymore.

Obtaining interoperability is definitely a step towards success for WiMAX but many are less optimistic and excited than Shakouri. The development of WiMAX has been slow despite the need for first mover advantage over LTE, and the certification for WiMAX products has been impatiently awaited by vendors. Unfortunately, the eight products announced as certified by the WiMax Forum only support 2.3GHz and Wave 1. The 2.3GHz frequency is used in Korea, but the rest of the world will probably use either 2.5GHz or 3.5GHz. With Wave 1, the eight certified products will only support basic features so vendors are pushing for the WiMAX Forum to certify products that support Wave 2 especially since network installation has begun for some. While it is very exciting that certification is happening, when it comes to WiMAX, everything needs to be faster.