As I’m sure you already have heard, the blockbuster news of the day is that Bright House Networks, Clearwire Corp., Comcast Corp., Google, Intel Corp., Sprint-Nextel Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc. have formed a $14.5 billion broadband wireless joint venture.

Of course, this deal marks a return of the Clearwire and Sprint-Nextel pairing, as well as Sprint’s second go at partnering with the cablecos around wireless. But, considering the forward-looking broadband wireless focus of this venture and the fact that Google and Intel are now part of the mix, this effort is far wider-ranging and looks much more promising than the earlier, failed combinations, particularly the Sprint/cableco one.

The deal gives Clearwire, founded by cellular pioneer Craig McCaw, the footprint it needs to be a serious player and puts its CEO Ben Wolff at the helm of the new effort. It gives Sprint, a long-time telecom player which has been a visionary in terms of broadband wireless but also needs serious help, some hope for the future. And it gives the involved cablecos, which have been looking for a path to higher-speed broadband and converged services, a significant play on the wireless front.

Meanwhile, Google gets plumb positioning for its search, advertising and Android operating system software in what is expected to be the nation’s first WiMAX network. For Intel, this is yet another effort to help forward another technology that will fuel demand for its chips.

Putting together this combination reportedly took a lot of time, blood, sweat and tears. But, clearly, as a whole, this is an impressive slate of players all with a clear reason for participating and investing in the venture.

However, successfully building a new network based on new technology and successfully marketing services based on it in competition with the telcos, who are already in the midst of building broadband wireless and wireline networks and their own converged services, will be no small feat. But having Google and Intel firmly entrenched in their camp would seem to give this reworked wireless/cableco pairing a strong advantage.