This article is about the telecommunications company; see sprints for the running term.

Sprint Corporation (NYSE: FON (http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/lcddata.html?ticker=FON)) is one of the world's largest telecommunication companies. It is a global communications provider and a major competitor in the American cellular phone market, through its Sprint PCS service based on CDMA and PCS. It is also a Tier 1 internet service provider under the name SprintLink.

Sprint maintains its nationwide PCS presence with the help of affiliates. These smaller companies, in agreement with Sprint, build network infastructure 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. Alamosa PCS is the largest of its affiliate carriers, with others including Ubiquitel, Airgate, and Horizon PCS.

In 2003, Sprint began recombining their business units – local telecom (LTD), long distance/wireline (Global Markets Group), and wireless (PCS) – into a new company, marketing the combined company as "One Sprint". In April 2004, the separately traded wireless tracking stock was reabsorbed into the FON ticker.

The corporation is based in Overland Park, Kansas. The headquarters house about 14,500 Sprint employees within approximately four million square feet (400,000 m²) of office space on 240 acres. It also maintains a large presence in Southern Johnson County, Kansas and in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.

Executive Team

• Chairman and CEO, Gary D. Forsee, 54
• President; President and COO, Len J. Lauer, 46
• EVP and CFO, Robert J. (Bob) Dellinger, 43

History

In 1899, Cleyson Brown founded the Brown Telephone Company in the small town of Abilene, Kansas. That company changed its name to United Telecommunications in 1972. In 1986, the company launched its long distance services under the Sprint brandname.

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 disapproved by the Federal Communications Commission, though the company's fax service (SpeedFAX) had been permitted. 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 a acronym for "Southern Pacific Railroad Information Network."

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 (dropping the US).

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. The new company was to become WorldCom and would be the largest communications company in the United States. The merger was going to put AT&T in the number two spot of the largest communications companies in the US for the first time in history. However the deal did not go through because of pressure from the US Department of Justice and the EU on concerns of it creating a monopoly. On July 13, 2000. the Board of Directors of both companies acted to terminate the merger. Later on in 2000, MCI WorldCom renamed itself WorldCom without Sprint being part of the company.

On December 10, 2004, media reports suggested that Sprint was prepared to acquire Nextel Communications for over $35 billion. [1] (http://news.com.com/Sprint+near+deal+to+buy+Nextel+for+36+billion/2100-1037_3-5479444.html)

On December 15, 2004, Sprint and Nextel announced that they will merge and create Sprint Nextel. For more information, see Sprint Nextel.

Sprint competitors

• AT&T
• WorldCom
• SBC Communications
• Verizon
• BellSouth
• Qwest
• T-Mobile

External links

• Sprint's official website (http://www.sprint.com/), including a company history (http://www.sprint.com/sprint/ir/sd/sh.html)
• Sprint Canada's official website (http://www.sprintcanada.ca/)
• Sprint PCS Official Website (http://www.sprintpcs.com/)