In a Thursday statement, Clearwire revealed that three top Sprint Nextel executives - CEO Dan Hesse, Keith Cowan, and Steven Elfman - have resigned from the Clearwire board “out of an abundance of caution”, after Clearwire raised concerns about the likelihood of antitrust issues.

Confirming that the Sprint executives have stepped down from their posts as Clearwire’s board of directors, Clearwire said in a press release that the move resulted from the company having raised concerns after new developments in antitrust law, including a Supreme Court decision in the case involving American Needle Inc. and National Football League.

Clearwire’s statement about the resignation of Sprint executives went thus: “Clearwire was informed by Sprint that the decisions to resign were made out of an abundance of caution to address questions raised by Clearwire regarding new developments in antitrust law.”

Formed in 2008, Clearwire is a joint venture – in which Sprint has a majority stake of 54 percent – involving broadband provider Clearwire and other investing partners, including tech giants Google and Intel, and cable operators Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks.

Noting that the company will name temporary members to the board, Clearwire said that the stepping down of the Sprint executives from its board will pave the way for other investors – probably T-Mobile - to pour additional capital into the company which is presently focused on developing a country-wide 4G wireless network.