Sprint Nextel Corp. had to decide to back off their former plans to offer Google Inc’s Nexus One mobile phone to abandon the device in favor of the other handsets powered by the Android operating system.

For a changed plan, Sprint will now just focus on the HTC Corp. Evo phone, which will have to set its debut this year and will run on fourth generation, or 4G, networks, said Stepahnie Vinge Walsh,the spokeswoman for the third largest US wireless carrier.

The decision to withhold sales of the Nexus One denies the Google access to more than 138 million wireless customers on the networks of Sprint and Verizon Wireless, which last month decided against plans to sell the device.