Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) is a telecommunications company, based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with nearly 52 million customers, behind AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless. Sprint is a global Internet carrier and makes up a portion of the Internet backbone. In the United States, the company also operates the second largest wireless broadband network and is the third largest long distance provider.
The company was created in 2005 by the $35 billion purchase of Nextel Communications by Sprint Corporation. In 2006, the company spun off its local landline telephone business, naming it Embarq. The company also completed the $6.5 billion acquisition of Nextel Partners, one of its largest affiliates, which primarily provides Nextel wireless services to more rural markets.
| Sprint Nextel Corporation |
 |
| Type |
Public (NYSE: S) |
| Founded |
Abilene, Kansas, U.S. (1899) |
| Founder |
Cleyson Brown (Sprint)
Morgan O'Brien (Nextel) |
| Headquarters |
Overland Park, Kansas |
| Area served |
United States and worldwide |
| Key people |
James Hance, chairman
Daniel Hesse, chief executive |
| Industry |
Telecommunications |
| Services |
Mobile phone services
Internet carrier |
| Revenue |
▲ $40.15 billion (2007) |
| Operating income |
▼ $28.9 billion (2007) |
| Net income |
▼ US$-29.6 billion (2007) |
| Employees |
60,000 (2007) |
| Website |
sprint.com |
History
Sprint
This article uses content from wikipedia.org
The original Sprint logo was used from 1989 to 2004. This has a former symbol and the word, "Sprint" was in italics.
The Sprint Corporation was founded in 1899 by Cleyson Leroy Brown, George Andrew Lita and Rosemarie Casuncad under the name of 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 1938, after emerging from bankruptcy, Brown changed its name to United Utilities. The company grew steadily through acquisitions and, in 1972, changed its name to United Telecommunications, at which time it provided local telephone service in many areas of the Midwest and South. United Telecom also operated many other types of businesses. In 1980 United Telecom launched a national X.25 data service, Uninet. To enter the long-distance voice market, United Telecom acquired ISACOMM in 1981 and US Telephone in 1984.
Southern Pacific Communications Company (SPCC), a unit of the Southern Pacific Railroad, began providing long-distance telephone service shortly after the Execunet II decision late in 1978. The Railroad had an extensive microwave communications system along its rights of way used for internal communications. In 1972, they began selling surplus time on that system to corporations for use as their own Private Line Network, thereby circumventing AT&T's then-monopoly on public telephony, later expanding to fiber optic cables laid along those same rights of way subsequent to the Execunet II decision late in 1978. 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 technology lab on Adrian Ct).
As mentioned above, SPCC was only permitted to provide Private Line service and not switched services. When MCI Communications released EXECUNET, SPCC went to court with the FCC to get the right to offer switched services. The reason for the contest was to name the new switched service.
The Sprint service was first marketed to six metropolitan areas: New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Diego and Anaheim. The switches were located in Los Angeles and New York. A customer, required to have a Private Line connection to one of these switches in order to use the service, paid an access fee per Private Line. The customer was then billed at 2.6 cents per tenth of a minute increment.
Southern Pacific Communications became part of GTE in 1982 under the name GTE Sprint. GTE had previously acquired a national X.25 provider, Telenet, in 1979.
In 1986, GTE Sprint was merged with GTE Telenet, US Telecom, Uninet, and ISACOMM 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 due in large part to the increased brand recognition of Sprint, as a result of the successful Candice Bergen "Dime Lady" advertisement campaign.
In 1983 United Telecom's Telespectrum began offering cellular telephone services in United's territories. In 1988 Telespectrum was sold to Centel to fund United's purchase of an additional 30% of US Sprint. This purchase gave United operational control of US Sprint.
In 1993, Sprint acquired Centel, which allowed Sprint to provide local service in a total of 18 states and put them back in the wireless. In 1994, Sprint spun off their cellular operations as 360 Communications for regulatory reasons in order to start up their PCS spectrum service. 360 Communications was subsequently acquired by Alltel in 1998.
In late 1994 and early 1995, Sprint via Sprint Spectrum (a joint venture between Sprint and several cable companies), acquired near nationwide PCS spectrum. Later in 1995, the company began to offer wireless service under the Sprint PCS brand in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area, it was the very first PCS-based wireless network in the Americas. Although the current Sprint PCS network utilizes CDMA, the Washington area network was based on 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 Partnership With RadioShack
In September 1996, Sprint announced an alliance with RadioShack, and in 1997 Sprint Stores opened at RadioShack to offer their communications services and products through RadioShack Stores across the United States. Since then, over 20 million Sprint cell phones have been sold via the RadioShack outlets. RadioShack was one of the first retailers to offer Sprint services and an all-digital nationwide network for its customers.
On October 5, 1999, Sprint and MCI WorldCom announced a $129 billion 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," but was also a homophone of the word "phone"). This was challenged in many lawsuits by Sprint PCS shareholders who felt robbed because their stock was devalued through the ratio of 1 share of PCS stock for 1/2 share of FON stock. The PCS shareholders claimed a loss of 1.3 billion to 3.4 billion dollars. Sprint agreed to settle with the shareholders for only 57.5 million dollars.
Sprint PCS
Sprint PCS is the main wireless brand of Sprint Nextel, and was the main brand of the former Sprint Corporation.
Sprint began offering wireless service under the name Sprint PCS in 1995 in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area, it was the very first PCS-based wireless network in the Americas. Although the current Sprint PCS network utilizes CDMA, the Washington area network was based on 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 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.
NEXTEL
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Main article: NEXTEL Communications
Former Nextel Communications logo, current Nextel-branded services logo.
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. Former Virginia Governor Mark Warner was one of the early investors. Daniel Akerson served as CEO of Nextel for part of his career. Tim Donahue replaced Akerson as CEO in 1998.
NEXTEL Communications was formerly traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker "NXTL". It was a Fortune 500 company.
Nextel International
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Main article: NII Holdings, Inc.
Nextel International was founded in 1996 as a subsidiary of Nextel to operate as a holding company for both mobile service and network infrastructure in foreign countries. It initially operated in Latin America and the Philippines. In 2001, Nextel International declared bankruptcy and re-emerged as NII Holdings, Inc. Following Sprint's purchase of Nextel, Nextel sold off most of its investment in NII; however, NII still markets under the Nextel brand name. NII currently operates in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Chile.
