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Sprint Nextel Corporation (), headquartered in Reston, VA , is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, with a combined market capitalization of $77.1 Billion as of early 2006. It operates the third largest wireless network in the U.S. based on total wireless customers—behind Cingular Wireless and Verizon Wireless —with 51 million subscribers, under both the '''Sprint PCS''' and '''Nextel''' brands. It is also a provider of Landline , Long Distance , and is a Tier 1 Internet Service Provider under the name SprintLink. As well as operating several units that provide businesses and governments with communications services. The new company, formerly known as Sprint Corporation, was created from the $35 billion purchase of NEXTEL Communications by Sprint, though the entire deal was billed as a merger of equals. Both internally and externally, '''Sprint''' is an acceptable short name for the company. The company maintains its operational headquarters on its corporate campus in Overland Park, Kansas . HISTORY Sprint The Sprint Corporation was founded in 1899 by Cleyson Brown under the Brown Telephone Company in the small town of Abilene, Kansas . The company was a landline telephone company that operated as a competitor to the Bell System . In the mid 20th Century , Brown changed its name to United Utilities. That company changed its name to United Telecommunications in 1972 , as it began to offer a more diversified product range. Southern Pacific Communications Company (SPCC), a unit of the Southern Pacific Railroad began offering their dial-up service shortly after the Execunet II decision late in 1978 . The Railroad had extensive Rights Of Way that could be used to lay long-distance communications. Prior attempts at offering long distance service were not approved by the Federal Communications Commission , though the company's Fax service (SpeedFAX) had been permitted. SPC was headquartered in Burlingame, California (where Sprint still maintains a small presence on Adrian Ct.). According to company employees, '''Sprint''' was a name chosen by a contest sponsored within the company by Rex Hollis, the VP of Marketing at the time. Some claim it was an Acronym for "'''S'''outhern '''P'''acific '''R'''ailroad '''I'''nformation '''N'''e'''T'''work" or "'''S'''witched '''PRI'''vate '''N'''etwork '''T'''elecommunications," but these may also be Backronym s. Southern Pacific Communications became part of GTE in 1982 . In 1986 , Sprint was merged with US Telecom (the long distance arm of United Telecom) to form US Sprint. This was a partnership owned by GTE and United Telecom. In 1989 United Telecom purchased controlling interest in US Sprint. In 1991 United Telecom completed its acquisition of US Sprint. That same year United Telecom changed its name to Sprint. In 1995 , the company began to offer wireless service under the Sprint PCS brand. On October 5 , 1999 Sprint and MCI WorldCom announced a $129 Billion dollar merger agreement between the two companies. The deal would have been the largest corporate merger in history at the time. However the deal did not go through because of pressure from the United States Department Of Justice and the European Union on concerns of it creating a monopoly. In 2003 , Sprint began recombining their local telecom, long distance, wireline, and wireless business units into a new company, marketing the combined company as "One Sprint". In April 2004 , the separately-traded wireless tracking stock, "PCS", was absorbed into the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) "FON" ticker symbol, Sprint's former ticker symbol. (FON stood for "Fiber Optic Network", which was Sprint's bragging right, but was also a homophone of the word "phone".) NEXTEL NEXTEL was founded as FleetCall in 1987 by Morgan E. O'Brien, a Washington, DC, communications attorney, and changed its name to NEXTEL Communications in 1993 . In 1995 , wireless pioneer Craig McCaw became a significant investor in the company. Mark Warner , a former Virginia Governor and possible 2008 presidential candidate was one of the company's co-founders. Daniel Akerson was also a founder of Nextel. NEXTEL was formerly traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker "NXTL". Merger of Sprint and NEXTEL On December 15 , 2004 , Sprint and NEXTEL announced they would merge to form Sprint Nextel Corporation. While billed as a merger of equals, the transaction was actually the purchase of NEXTEL Communications by Sprint Corporation. At the time of the merger announcement Sprint and NEXTEL were the No. 3 and No. 5 leading providers in the US mobile phone industry. Sprint shareholders overwhelmingly approved the merger on July 13 , 2005 . The merger deal was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and U.S. Department of Justice on August 3 , 2005. The FCC placed a condition on the merger that Sprint Nextel is to provide wireless service within the 2.5 GHz band within the next four years. Sprint Nextel was officially formed on August 12 , 2005, when the deal was completed. Sprint and NEXTEL both faced opposition to the merger, mostly from regional affiliates that provide wireless services on behalf of the companies. These regional affiliates felt that the new company would be violating non-compete agreements that the former companies had made with the affiliates. Nextel is known for its free incoming call plan. However, since the merger Nextel Customers are now able to convert their plans to the Sprint side, and Sprint Customers can convert their accounts to the Nextel side. Both changes, would require purchasing new phone equipment however, Sprint Nextel may buy-back fairly new but used-cells phones for upto $40. While calling plans between both halves of Sprint Nextel have become nearly identical. SPRINT NEXTEL TODAY Sprint Nextel currently offers Cellular Phone service under its Sprint PCS and '''Nextel''' brands. It is also a provider of landline, long distance, and business telecommunications, and is a Tier 1 Internet Service Provider under the name SprintLink. Since the merger between Sprint and Nextel, their previous plans have been modified to offer the best of both worlds. Sprint now offers Free Incoming plans, which are very popular with Nextel customers. And Nextel now offers the Fair & Flexible plans, which became a leading plan offered by Sprint. Sprint Nextel also offers pre-paid services through the , and Qwest . Embarq Sprint Nextel is expected to spin off its local telephone division into a separate company officially named Embarq Corporation and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EQ. The new local phone company will be the fifth largest local exchange carrier in the United States (under the Baby Bells ) and the largest independent local provider, serving customers in 18 states and providing local, long distance and high-speed data services to residential and business customers. Embarq will become a fully separate company on May 17 , 2006 . It will be headquarted at the Sprint Campus in Overland Park, KS . Quadruple Play On November 2, 2005 Sprint Nextel and a coalition of US-based Cable television providers announced a partnership where cable TV customers would be able to bundle their Sprint or Nextel cell phones with either their Comcast , Time Warner Cable , Cox Communications or Advance/Newhouse Communications cable bills. In addition the group of Cable companies agreed to their intention to develop products with Sprint Nextel where users would be able to initiate advanced features like control their Digital Video Recorder (DVRs) by cell phone. {Link without Title} Press Releases: [http://www.cmcsk.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=147565&p=irol-announcement , [http://www.timewarnercable.com/InvestorRelations/PressReleases/TWCPressReleaseDetail.ashx?PRID=840&MarketID=0 Affiliate Acquisition In 2005, Sprint Nextel acquired three of its wireless affiliates, US Unwired (deal closed in August), Gulf Coast Wireless (deal closed in October), and IWO Holdings (deal closed in October). Analysts speculate that Sprint Nextel will acquire additional affiliates. On September 1 , 2005 , Sprint Nextel combined plan offerings of its Sprint PCS and Nextel brands to bring more uniformity across the company's offerings. Logo The new logo of the Sprint Nextel Corporation was one of the first attempts at seamlessly meshing the initial brands of both the Sprint Corporation and NEXTEL Communications. The logo is a blend of the former Sprint "pin drop" marketing image as well as the colors of Nextel's bright yellow and black logo design with its cellular service level bars that, in past marketing, would get "typed" from a single vertical black line {Link without Title} . The company also continues to reinforce the idea of a combination of brand strengths on several levels of marketing including a voice over exclaiming "Sprint, together with Nextel" or "Nextel, together with Sprint" as a way to play on the idea of a merger of equals. Sprint PCS Sprint PCS is the main wireless brand of Sprint Nextel, and was the main brand of the former Sprint Corporation.
Sprint's EV-DO (Power Vision) offering includes Sprint TV, Sprint Radio (both streaming and SIRIUS satellite music) Stations, Sprint's Music Store, Sprint On-Demand, unlimited Web access, video and picture mail, wireless chat, and games. It is currently being offered in 41 states in the US. Sprint is also known for only charging their customers $10 (For 1xRTT) and $15 (For EV-DO Power Visions) web access through a phone. Regardless of whether the phone is a standard or PDA Smart-Device phone. Unlike other carriers who charge up to $40 a month for PDA data access. Unlike Verizon's EV-DO offering, Sprint's Power Vision content is available in areas without EV-DO coverage, albeit at the lower speeds of the 1xRTT network. CDMA 1x data speeds can reach 144 Kbps, while EV-DO Currently has bursts of up to 2 Mbps.
Sprint Nextel maintains its nationwide PCS presence with the help of affiliates. These smaller companies, in agreement with Sprint, build network infrastructure as well as operate retail stores. In exchange, the smaller companies receive usage of Sprint's brand, radio spectrum, customer service and billing. In most cases, these affiliate carriers are transparent to the end user or consumer. This has also given Sprint a unique advantage over other carriers, in that their entire network was built for Sprint. Other national carriers coverage areas are made up of merged and acquired networks, which can cause inconsistent network harmony and other related problems. Alamosa PCS (WAS) the largest of its affiliate carriers. Sprint Nextel completed the acquisition of Alamosa Holdings on February, 2 2006. Other affiliates include Ubiquitel, iPCS, Shentel, Enterprise, Northern PCS, and Swiftel. (See the ''Forced acquisitions and settlements'' section below for more details on acquisitions) Sprint Nextel also offers WiFi 802.11 service in some major airports, cafes, hotels and convention centers. Of historical note, when Sprint began offering wireless service in 1995 in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area , it was the very first PCS -based wireless network in the Americas . Interesingly however, while today Sprint's PCS network utilizes CDMA, the Washington area network was actually GSM . Eventually Sprint converted that network to CDMA, then sold the GSM infrastructure in 1999 to Omnipoint (which eventually became part of T-Mobile USA ). Sprint Music Store On October 31, 2005 the Sprint Music Store officially launched for PCS customers. Initial record-label participation included: EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group. According to claims made by Sprint, the service has become such a hit that by February 15, 2006 one-million songs had been downloaded. Then by April 6, 2006 the store had reached over 2 million downloads. [http://www.wirelessweek.com/article/CA6322763.html Nextel Nextel is the former wireless brand of NEXTEL Communications, and it operates on Motorola's IDEN protocol which uses Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)-based technology. Unlike other cellular operators, Nextel utilizes the specialized mobile radio band (SMR) and was one of the first operators in the United States to offer nationwide digital-cellular radio coverage. The Nextel brand has over 18.5 million U.S. subscribers, and is particularly popular in the southern United States. Some of Nextel's special features include its Push To Talk feature, which simulates the half-duplex operation of a Two-way radio, as well as GPS integration in later handsets. However, there are several downsides related to using this proprietary Motorola technology standard. It has been suggested there has been a lack of innovation in handset size, weight, and function compared to cellular industry trends, though many believe this has begun to change as result of the Sprint Nextel merger. Initially, there was much speculation that current Nextel subscribers would be required to replace their existing handsets due to incompatibility between the standards used on both the Nextel and Sprint PCS network. However, since the time of the merger, Sprint Nextel has been working to assure its customers that both the current iDEN and CDMA technologies will continue to be supported for the current-time and that dual-band phones are being developed which will work on both networks simultaneously. Sprint Nextel plans to make a major marketing push in 2008 to convert users of the iDen network to CDMA users. The push-to-talk (PTT) feature, with which Nextel has gained popularity, is expected to be made interoperable between the Sprint and Nextel networks by 2008. Currenty, Sprint PCS has its own push-to-talk service called ReadyLink which is based on the SIP VoIP protocol. Due to the difference in technology, users of the ReadyLink service cannot make or receive push-to-talk calls with users of the iDEN-based network. The integration of the two networks will be dependent on the deployment of Sprint's chosen successor to the first-phase of their high-speed wireless EV-DO network. The new push-to-talk platform is slated to be based on Qualcomm 's Qchat product, which has been under development as a joint effort between both Sprint Nextel and Qualcomm since January 2002.
In addition to the US market, Nextel has licensed its identity to NII Holdings , a holding company of which Sprint Nextel owns 18%. They have used the Nextel brand to set -up networks in many Latin American countries. Boost Mobile The pre-paid mobile services arm of Sprint Nextel (in the United States) are under the brand name Boost Mobile . Boost Mobile and it's cell phones use the same IDEN mobile technology once used by Nextel Communictions. The phones include the infamous Nextel Walkie-talkie service known as 'Chirp'(tm) on Boost and Boost Mobile members may walkie-talkie to Sprint's former Nextel phone customers seamlessly. Nextel phones Nextel has been known in the past for not offering a very diverse selection of Mobile Phone s. This is especially true when related to its selection of alternate mobile phone manufacturers, as Motorola has seldom licensed its iDEN technology out to other handset vendors. All phones on Sprint Nextel's IDEN network thus far has been manufactured solely by Motorola , except for a few specialized devices sold by vendors such as Research In Motion (RIM), which has and continues to offer for sale versions of its BlackBerry PDA-style device. NII Holdings, Inc . (Nextel International) Nextel operates both mobile service and network infrastructure in various countries of , Brazil , Chile , Mexico and Peru . Forced acquisitions and settlements Prior to the merger, the Sprint Corporation and Nextel Communications were dependent on a network of affiliated companies. Following the announcement of the merger agreement, some of these affiliates came forward with a strong opposition to the Sprint Nextel merger on the grounds that the merged company may violate existing agreements or significantly undercut earnings to these affiliates. In order for Sprint Nextel to allay some of this opposition by affiliates, they were forced to initiate discussions of either acquiring some of these affiliates or renegotiate existing agreements. In several cases the newly formed company was forced to acquire affiliated companies in exchange for them dropping their opposition of the merger. ''Below are some of those companies which Sprint Nextel has agreed to acquire:''
MAJOR SPONSORSHIPS Sprint Nextel is the major title sponsor of NASCAR ’s top racing series, called the NEXTEL Cup . It is expected that the name of the series will be changed to the Sprint Cup for 2007 . Sprint Nextel is the official wireless sponsor of the NFL. Sprint Nextel also holds naming rights to the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri . SPRINT NEXTEL COMPETITORS Wireless (in order of size) Landline (in order of size) EXTERNAL LINKS Official sites
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