Sprint this week named Daniel R. Hesse, former CEO of Embarq Corporation, as the company's new president and CEO - replacing Gary Forsee, who exited the company two months back.

"Mr Hesse, 54, who has spent more than 25 years in the communications industry, has been chief executive of embarq since the long-distance carrier was spun off by Sprint 18 months ago," writes the FT's Paul Taylor.

"Hesse's command of telecommunications technology will be sorely tested at Sprint," writes InformationWeek's W. David Gardner. "The company is forging ahead with two competing technologies - CDMA2000 EV-DO and WiMax - and he will be challenged to find a way to make them complementary at an affordable cost."

"Wall Street insiders say Sprint's board of directors approached at least four other telecom executives before offering the job to Hesse," write BusinessWeek's Roger O. Crockett and Olga Kharif. "They included Ralph de la Vega, chief executive of AT&T's wireless business, and Dennis Strigl, chief operating officer of Verizon Communciatons and former CEO of Verizon Wireless. Both declined to pursue the position."

More here from Forbes ... more here from Red Herring ... more here from InfoWorld ... more here from the AP ... more here from Reuters ... and the press release is here.