by Eric Zeman

Over the weekend, Sprint and a number of other companies agreed to invest another $1.5 billion into Clearwire, the growing provider of WiMax services. Notably absent on the list of financiers was Google, which has previously given cash to Clearwire.

Clearwire needs more cash to continue building out and operating its slowly expanding WiMax network across the U.S. Sprint, its major investor, has announced that it will pony up a whopping $1 billion (despite the company’s recently reported quarterly loss). Other investors — including Comcast Corp., Intel Corp, Time Warner Cable Inc. and Bright House Networks LLC — are kicking in another $500 million between the lot of them.

Google has already given about $200 million to Clearwire, and apparently, Google thinks that’s enough (for now). Google recently said, “We have already made a significant financial investment, and at this point we think the best way we can continue to add value is through continued product and strategic cooperation,” in an email to Reuters.

In other words, Google is saying, “We’ll see what we can do to make some of the stuff we’ve already invested in available to Clearwire while we wait to see if this WiMax thing is really going to take off.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, Clearwire has about 511,000 subscribers sprinkled across the country. Keep in mind, Clearwire still has a fairly limited footprint, especially when compared to the existing 3G networks of Verizon Wireless, AT&T and even Sprint.

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