Sprint-Led Alliance Outlines $4-Billion Plan : Telecom: Top Sprint executive Ronald LeMay is named to head ambitious phone-cable venture.

Sprint Corp. and its cable television partners said Wednesday they plan to spend $4.4 billion over the next three years to grab a share of lucrative communications markets across the country.

The companies named a top Sprint official, Ronald LeMay, to head the venture they formed last year to offer local telephone, long-distance, mobile telephone and cable TV services to consumers.

The partnership is made up of Sprint, with 40% of the venture, Tele-Communications Inc., the nation’s largest cable operator, with 30%, and Comcast Corp. and Cox Communications, with 15% apiece.

The government is gradually easing the restrictions for communications, letting cable TV and local and long-distance companies compete with each other.

Sprint teamed up with the cable companies in October and then bid on the government’s auction on air space for personal communications services--futuristic services that will allow nationwide mobile telephone services.

The partners said about $500 million of the $4.4 billion has already been spent on rights to provide services that the venture acquired at the auction.

The venture’s wireless communications operations will reach a population of 182.4 million in the United States.

Industry analysts said the investment should pay off over time but that the partners will first have to overcome consumer skepticism about service from cable companies.

“One of the biggest challenges is going to be upgrading the networks and services sufficiently and quickly, and Sprint is going to have to deal with the bad reputation of the cable companies,” said Scott Wright, an analyst at New York’s Argus Research Corp.

“There’s a lot of capital to be spent on upgrading the network, which is going to take time,” said John Redden at Moran & Associates, a Greenwich, Conn., investment firm. While the costs are great, “the payoff is even bigger,” he added.

Alliances similar to Sprint’s are expected to emerge in coming years as the market for packaged telecommunications services grows.