“Sprint has some fundamental marketing and technology problems, and Craig McCaw comes with a cadre of very experienced people,” said Joe Nordgaard, director of wireless consulting firm Spectral Advantage. “As such he would probably clean house a bit, which could be what Sprint needs at this point.”

Mr. Nordgaard said Mr. McCaw should head a short list of replacements that most likely includes former Nextel CEO Tim Donahue, former Sprint CEO Andrew Sukawaty, and Verizon Wireless President Dennis Strigl.

Mr. Forsee resigned as chief executive at Sprint Nextel on Monday amid intense pressure as a result of the mobile carrier’s poor performance in the ultra-competitive mobile market.

Sprint Nextel, created by a 2005 merger of two major carriers, has had ongoing problems with network performance resulting from the integration and the intricate upgrade of the consolidated network.

Those problems were further complicated by Sprint’s decision to spend at least $3 billion on a nationwide network based on WiMAX, an untried and not fully defined standard.

“Trying to build a vast network using a new technology when their primary network still needed so much work distracted technical and financial resources away from the more important task of making the network more acceptable to their customers,” Mr. Nordgaard said.

That divided focus shook whatever confidence shareholders may have had in Sprint’s management and Mr. Forsee’s ouster came as a result of that loss of confidence in the Reston, Virginia-based carrier’s leadership, he said.

In July Sprint and Clearwire, a Kirkland, Washington-based WiMAX carrier founded by Mr. McCaw, decided to build a single nationwide WiMAX network rather than two competing networks. (see Sprint, Clearwire Bond on WiMAX)

Mr. Nordgaard said that Mr. McCaw's investment in Clearwire is entwined in Sprint's potential for success.

“He can sit by and let Sprint spend a lot more money on the WiMAX network and then try to buy it on the cheap, or he could entertain the challenge of turning Sprint around on all fronts,” he said.

But not everyone thinks Mr. McCaw would make a good Sprint CEO.

“He is a master dealmaker, but he will not be the ideal choice to run a big company like Sprint,” said Peter Gorham, an independent wireless analyst.

Mr. Gorham favors Andrew Sukawaty, CEO of London-based satellite communications firm Inmarsat.