Sprint CEO Dan Hesse appeared on CNBC yesterday, chatting about competition with the new iPhone and the economy's impact on the wireless industry. But some of Hesse's most interesting comments dealt with Sprint's broadband wireless partner: Kirkland-based Clearwire. (That discussion starts in minute 4:15 of the video below.)

Here's what Hesse -- known around these parts as the former CEO of AT&T Wireless and Terabeam Networks -- had to say about buying out the remaining stake of Clearwire.

"Clearwire is our 4G company, the way we look at it. We own 56 percent of it today," he said. "If you look at the last capital raise, we also got a nice contribution from our cable partners: Comcast, Time Warner, Brighthouse. And we have aligned interests in that we share the same competitors: AT&T and Verizon. And they will also will start to bundle more wireless in with their offers and that's good for us as they compete with the video bundle. So, there are a lot of things that are positive about the way Clearwire is currently structured."

[Hat tip via Fierce Wireless]