Sprint Nextel Corp has not had a lot of luck signing up customers. With all the competition, the network is renting out the excess capacity on its network to makers of consumer gadgets.

Sprint has spent billions rolling out a high-speed data network. Currently, they are already host to the Amazon Kindle Whispernet service, which provides wireless delivery of eBooks to the popular eReader and serves to distinguish the Kindle from its competition. In an attempt to not have to worry about expenses for billing and customer services, Sprint will rent out its network and generally collect fees from manufacturers based on how much data is transmitted to the devices.

Sprint are currently in talks with GPS device maker Garmin Ltd., Eastman Kodak Co. and SanDisk Corp. Chief Executive Dan Hesse says wholesale services are a critical part of Sprint’s future, “We’ll get the lion’s share of new products that need a cellular connection.” Wholesale currently makes up about 3% of Sprint’s revenue and 16% of its total subscriber base of 49.3 million. Jim Patterson, Sprint’s president of wholesale services stated that “For every five companies that come in and say ‘I’ve got this great idea,’ only about one actually gets done.” Will this be one of those ideas?

[via Wall Street Journal]