The line of Sprint Corp. wireless affiliates seeking injunctive relief expanded on Friday as iPCS Inc. filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent Sprint from violating its affiliate agreement in relation to its pending acquisition of Nextel Communications Inc.
The suit claims that Sprint’s pending acquisition of Nextel will violate iPCS’ affiliate agreement as the combined operations plan to use Nextel’s existing infrastructure, licenses and network to augment Sprint’s network in iPCS’ service area. The affiliate noted that there is about 95-percent geographical overlap of Nextel and its affiliate Nextel Partners Inc.’s wireless network within iPCS’ service area.
In addition, iPCS claims that Nextel’s ongoing spectrum relocation process with the Federal Communications Commission will further violate its affiliate agreement. The FCC plan will provide Nextel with 10 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.9 GHz spectrum band in exchange for some of Nextel’s 800 MHz spectrum holdings and nearly $5 billion in cash and related expenses. The affiliate said its network agreement prevents Sprint from offering a competing service using the 1.9 GHz spectrum bands in iPCS’ service areas.
iPCS’ suit follows similar legal proceedings initiated this week by fellow affiliates Ubiquitel Inc. and US Unwired Inc., which recently announced it was being acquired by Sprint for $1.3 billion. iPCS recently acquired fellow affiliate Horizon PCS Inc. and said it currently serves more than 443,000 subscribers in parts of Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio and Tennessee.
