RESTON, Va.—Sprint Nextel Corp. has been granted a stay in its ongoing legal battle with PCS affiliate iPCS Inc. that will allow the national carrier to continue operating its Nextel network within iPCS territory.
In two separate lawsuits in Illinois and Delaware, disparate rulings were reached on whether the Nextel network violated iPCS’ affiliate agreement. In August, a Cook County Circuit Court judge ruled that it did, and that Sprint Nextel should be required to divest itself of the Nextel operations within the affiliate’s territory in five Midwestern states. In the Delaware case, operation of the iDEN network was not viewed as a violation.
Sprint Nextel vowed to appeal the Illinois ruling and in the meantime, “fully expects to continue operating its Nextel network throughout the iPCS territories for the foreseeable future,” according to a company statement.
The carrier said that it expects that a decision on its appeal would be reached within seven to nine months.
