KANSAS CITY, Mo.-The board of directors of Sprint Corp. is considering a possible spinoff or sale of Sprint Cellular along with other options to reduce its market ownership in areas where the Sprint-cable consortium won personal communications services licenses.
Sprint Telecommunications Venture, of which Sprint owns 40 percent, won PCS licenses in 29 markets from Boston to San Francisco. According to Federal Communications Commission rules, PCS license winners are not allowed to hold more than a 20 percent interest in a cellular provider that serves 10 percent or more of the population in a given major trading area.
The PCS licensee can reduce its percentage of ownership below 20 percent or reduce its population coverage to 10 percent.
Sprint is required to reduce its market ownership by 1.7 million pops in the Dallas, Detroit, Philadelphia and Des Moines, Iowa, MTAs.
If the company completely divests its ownership in those four markets and in some overlap markets and minority investments, it would still represent 6 million pops, Sprint said.
The board expects to make a decision within weeks. The company said it may only take the steps necessary to clear licensing conflicts with the FCC.
“With the wireless industry expected to triple or quadruple in size over the next decade, we want to maximize opportunities for Sprint Cellular, for our new venture with our cable partners and for our shareholders,” said William Esrey, Sprint chairman and chief executive officer.
