TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: FCC Gives Blessing to Sprint, Nextel Marriage

FCC Gives Blessing to Sprint, Nextel Marriage

Joseph (JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com)
Thu, 04 Aug 2005 16:57:54 -0700

By Arshad Mohammed and Yuki Noguchi

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- The merger of Sprint and Nextel Communications won
approval from the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice
Department yesterday, clearing the way for a combined company with
more than 35 million mobile-phone subscribers.

The companies said they expect the $35 billion merger to close within
two weeks and joint operations to begin within two months, meaning
consumers may see joint advertising on television and new signs in
stores by October.

The combined Sprint Nextel will be the nation's third-largest mobile
company and will have more ammunition to compete against its much
bigger rivals, Cingular Wireless and Verizon Wireless, and to forge
potentially lucrative partnerships with cable companies.

The company will continue to market to Sprint's customer base and to
Nextel's loyal business clients, who are devoted to its "push to talk"
walkie-talkie-like feature.

For now, the companies will still operate two different network
technologies, so that customers will not have to switch their phones.
They hope to develop a new version of Nextel's push-to-talk service
that will operate over Sprint's network, allowing current Nextel
customers to use the feature with Sprint customers.

http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=sprintnextel04&date=20050804&query=fcc+gives+blessing+to+sprint%2C+nextel+marriage

http://tinyurl.com/79trq

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