There has been a lot of recent rumors concerning Sprint Nextel. For example, there were rumors that Deutsche Telekom may make a bid for Sprint Nextel. There was also some buzz that the mobile phone service provider will give up Nextel. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse also said that "nothing is off the table" even though a separation of the Sprint and Nextel networks would be complex.

It would be easy to believe to all these rumors because it's evident that Sprint is still struggling. The company recently announced that it may seek changes to its credit agreements. The announcement raised concerns about the length of time it will take for the carrier to recover.

The company claims to have enough funds to devote for operations and repayments of maturing debts through the end of 2009. However, discussions with creditors to obtain waivers or amendments on credit facilities may be necessary.

The mobile phone carrier lost 1 million customers in the first quarter and Hesse expects many quarters will pass before his company can successfully reduce customer cancellations and return to profit.

Let's break down the numbers. Sprint reported a first quarter net loss of $505 million, or 18 cents a share. A year earlier, the mobile phone carrier suffered a loss of $211 million, or 7 cents a share. The company's revenue decreased by 7.9 percent or around $9.3 billion.

Fortunately, all is not lost for Sprint. The company is expecting that customer cancellations, and net post-paid subscriber losses will decrease because the carrier has worked hard to provide better customer service. The season's trend could also be a factor in the expected improvement. The company is planning to update shareholders in August. They will provide an assessment of the carriers' business model, its sale and marketing plans and its financial outlook.

According to some analysts, Sprint's rivals, AT&T Inc and Verizon Wireless benefited heavily from Sprint's problems. These companies reported significant customer growth in the first quarter suggesting that they took market share from Sprint.

Sprint Nextel recently announced a WiMax venture with Clearwire Corp and expects that the deal will help in the recovery. However, iPCS Inc., Sprint's biggest affiliate announced that was suing Sprint over the Clearwire deal. The affiliate claims that the WiMax venture would breach the exclusivity agreement between both parties.

I think it remains to be seen whether Sprint will be able to get out of this slump. If things continue to look bleak at the next quarters, then the rumors of a merge with Deutsche Telekom may become a reality.

The CTIA Wireless 2008 has become quite a venue for the launching and debuts of classy mobile phones. Of course, that is been the role of the mobile phone trade show. Carriers and manufacturers use the event to showcase their products. One of the highlights of the event, is the revelation of a phone that might be able to topple the iPhone.

According to CrunchGear.com,
Samsung and Sprint have worked together to hatch an iPhone Killer. At the CTIA, they have announced the imminent arrival of the the Samsung Instinct.

Killing Apple's iPhone, is a daunting task but the Samsung Instinct has the potential to turn heads around and make an impact on the mobile phone industry. Let me give a few details on the device.

This high-end mobile phone sports great features including EVDO Rev. A, Sprint Music, GPS with TeleNav support and Sprint TV. To compete with the powerful iPhone, the Instinct is designed to have a touchscreen QWERTY keyboard. It will also come with a 3.5mm headphone jack and 2 GB microSD card.

The device revealed at the tradeshow is a prototype so some imperfections and defects surfaced. however, these bugs may be fixed when the production models finally enter the market. Some of the analyst who have hands on experience with the device at the CTIA Wireless 2008 in Sin City were impressed. However, they did not think that it can kill the iPhone.

The Instinct has to overcome a lot of obstacles in order to be on par with Apple's hit handset. For instance, the iPhone has multitouch technology. This technology allows users to interact with a device without conventional input devices. Apple has sought a patent for this technology so Samsung has to look somewhere else to find a competitive technology.

Sprint it seems is putting a lot of faith in the Samsung Instinct. The carrier has announce that it is willing to spend a million bucks to advertise the product. The company is struggling so they maybe hoping that the high-end handset can help them recover. A single handset will not be able to resurrect the company but its a good start for Sprint because it will attract a lot of customers. The mobile phone provider has suffered from customer defections and launching the Samsung Instinct will convince many customers to stay.

Sprint Nextel, America’s third largest wireless provider, will lay off about 4,000 employees and eliminate about 125 retail outlets after it suffered a net loss of more than 100,000 customers in the fourth quarter of 2007.

The layoffs and other cost-cutting measures are expected to save the company US$700 million to $800 million a year.

The FCC is threatening to shut down major parts of Sprint's iDEN network as portions of the 800 MHz spectrum it operates in interferes with public safety channels. The conflict between the iDEN network and public safety agencies was addressed years ago as Sprint was given new spectrum to move its iDEN network onto. Though the carrier has already spent $1 billion to move the network, the FCC says that progress is not moving according to schedule. The carrier estimates the relevant parts of the network serve nearly 20 million subscribers. Sprint has asked the Court of Appeals to help protect it against threats of a shutdown.

Continue reading story here.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S - News) said on Friday that it was reviewing its WiMax business plans as it ended a partnership with Clearwire (NasdaqGS:CLWR - News) on the emerging high-speed wireless technology.

Sprint, which has been criticized by investors for its commitment to spend $5 billion by the end of 2010 on building a WiMax network, said it could not resolve "complexities" associated with the Clearwire partnership and failed to agree on the terms of the transaction.

Sprint Nextel Corp. is joining forces with Google Inc. and a consortium of dozens of other companies to develop a new technology for mobile phones.

The Open Handset Alliance is developing a system named Android that is intended to make it easier to offer new services to the nation's cell phone consumers.

'Sprint realizes that to grow the mobile marketplace and fully exploit the amazing potential of mobile communications, we have to empower rather than restrict wireless users,' John Garcia, Sprint's senior vice president of product development, said in a release. 'And the best way to do this is to create an environment that encourages the development of innovative products and services that customers can't live without. Android will be just such an environment, and Sprint is yet again at the forefront in mobile innovation.'

Other companies involved in the initiative include Deutsche Telekom, the parent company of T-Mobile, HTC Corp., Qualcomm and Motorola, Inc.

The alliance will make available a software developer kit that will allow technology specialists to create new mobile phone services. New phones and services using the Android system are expected to be available during the second half of next year.

At midday, Sprint shares were trading at $17.04, down 11 cents. Google was at $724.60, up $13.35.

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