Never mind that Best Buy hasn’t really been that good at selling services to its big-box customer base. Three years ago, it acquired Speakeasy, a DSL reseller, for $100 million. Last month, it sold off the unit to Covad and Megapath in what was described as a fire sale. Now, it’s reviving its services unit by trying to sell mobile broadband data in a program called “Best Buy Connect.” It’s murky how Clearwire will fit into the picture, but so far, the service includes access to Sprint’s 3G network. Data plans start at $30 a month for 250 megabytes and $60 a month for up to 5 gigabytes. Devices are limited to laptops embedded with Qualcomm’s Gobi chipset.

Elder said its deal is separate from Best Buy’s relationship with Sprint (NYSE: S), which owns a majority of Clearwire (NSDQ: CLWR). Best Buy represents the first reseller agreement that is not a partial owner in Clearwire. The other four deals are with Sprint, Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) and Brighthouse. Elder said to stay tuned to more relationships by the end of the year.

So far, Clearwire’s plan is working. In the fourth quarter 2009, it reported that it added 46,000 subscribers through wholesale relationships. By the end of the first quarter, it jumped to 157,000. Next week, we’ll hear how it did in the second quarter.