Sprint blew it by not reaching a "win-win arrangement with Clearwire," according to Moody's. As for Clearwire, Moody's downgraded it one notch to Caa2 ("Speculative Grade: Very Poor"), mainly for the likelihood that Sprint won't extending the present 4G agreement it has with Clearwire. As such, the company will have to find another partner or sell of its most valuable assets, its spectrum licenses, to pay its debt obligations after next year. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, a division of McGraw-Hill ( NYS: MHP ), also jumped on the pile, last week threatening Sprint with a downgrade. It didn't like the increased debt load that Sprint would have to take on with its plans to accelerate its own network upgrade. It also wasn't crazy about the profitability hit Sprint will suffer with its agreement to sell Apple 's ( NAS: AAPL ) iPhone. Bleak houses These downgrades come at a vulnerable time for both companies.