nextel

Samsung's Instinct didn't save Sprint Nextel's quarter, but the company has taken a few baby steps toward recovery.

Despite strong sales of the hot new touch-screen phone, Sprint Nextel reported yet another quarter of losses on Wednesday when it posted second quarter earnings. The Instinct went on sale in June a few weeks before Apple's much lauded iPhone 3G hit store shelves. And it was deemed an immediate success for Sprint as the phone hit record sales within the first week and has sold out of many Sprint locations.

Even though the hot selling product helped … Read more

A California state judge handed down a surprising and oddly reasoned verdict Thursday: Sprint Nextel's early termination fees for cell phone customers are illegal.

My colleague Maggie Reardon wrote an article about the 38-page ruling, which orders Sprint to pay $18.25 million to California customers who were charged termination fees. Customers charged fees who never paid them get a credit of $54.75 million.

You can imagine how much of this will go to the members of the supposed class that was harmed, and how much to the plaintiff's lawyers. In the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas … Read more

AT&T is looking to put a kibosh on the proposed merger of Sprint Nextel's nationwide WiMax assets with those of Clearwire.

On Thursday, the nation's largest phone company filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission, asking it to deny approval of the merger.

Sprint Nextel announced in May that it was teaming up with Clearwire to form a new joint venture that would combine both companies' WiMax assets to create a nationwide broadband wireless network. The deal, which has been valued at about $14.5 billion, is being backed by cable operators Comcast and Time … Read more

Sprint Nextel is selling more than 3,000 cell phone towers in a deal that will bring in $670 million in cash for the beleaguered wireless operator.

Sprint Nextel announced Wednesday that it plans to sell most of its cell phone towers to TowerCo. Sprint will then lease access to the towers to run its cellular phone network as well as build the new 4G WiMax network it's working on as part of the new Clearwire venture.

Sprint didn't disclose the specific number of towers it will sell and the final purchase price won't be determined until … Read more

Updated at 2:22 p.m. PDT. See below.

South Korea's largest wireless provider is said to be in discussions with Sprint about a potential acquisition, according to a report on CNBC's Web site.

Citing "people familiar with the situation," CNBC says that SK Telecom is interested in acquiring the much larger Sprint Nextel, but that any deal is still "weeks away," and that Sprint's own board of directors is "divided" about whether to sell the company at all.

The report says that SK Telecom will not pursue Sprint if it … Read more

Verizon Wireless agreed to pay $21 million to settle a lawsuit filed by customers who claim the company's early termination fees are excessive and unfair.

Details of the settlement aren't public. But a Verizon spokeswoman said that the settlement will put to rest claims filed by customers in California as well as customers who are part of a nationwide class action lawsuit.

Verizon denied any wrongdoing. And the spokeswoman pointed out that Verizon Wireless was the first cell phone operator in the U.S. to establish a pro-rated early termination fee that decreases over the time of the … Read more

Verizon Wireless agreed to pay $21 million to settle a lawsuit filed by customers who claim the company's early termination fees are excessive and unfair.

Details of the settlement aren't public. But a Verizon spokeswoman said that the settlement will put to rest claims filed by customers in California as well as customers that are part of a nationwide class action lawsuit.

Verizon denied any wrongdoing. And the spokeswoman pointed out that Verizon Wireless was the first cell phone operator in the U.S. to establish a pro-rated early termination fee that decreases over the time of the … Read more

Is Sprint Nextel on the comeback trail?

That's the buzz on various Web sites like The Wall Street Journal and TheStreet.com, as rumors fly that Verizon Wireless and AT&T executives say they are seeing fewer numbers ported from the struggling Sprint to their own networks.

The rumors have been bolstered by a research note published last week by a JPMorgan Chase analyst who quoted Denny Strigl, Verizon's COO, as saying that Sprint has been doing better in the past 30 days.

Press contacts for AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon declined to comment on the … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Sprint Nextel will launch its first commercial WiMax service in Baltimore in September, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said Wednesday during a speech at the NxtComm trade show.

Sprint will turn up WiMax service in two other cities, Chicago and Washington, before the end of the year, Hesse added. But he didn't give a specific time frame for these deployments.

The much-anticipated WiMax service has been delayed several times. Initially, the company had said it would launch the service in the first half of the year. More recently, it has been vague about when it would deploy the service. … Read more