Sprint Nextel expands WiMAX offering, stock upgraded

Sprint Nextel Corp. expanded its mobile WiMAX service to San Antonio and Austin, Texas, marketed under the Sprint 4G brand. The service runs off of Clearwire Corp.’s network and provides network speeds up to 10 times faster than the carrier’s CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Revision A-based 3G network.
Sprint Nextel earlier this year launched its 4G service in Dallas and Ft. Worth; Abilene; Amarillo; Corpus Christi; Killeen and Temple; Lubbock; Midland and Odessa; Waco; and Wichita Falls, Texas. The carrier now offers service in around 30 markets with plans to expand into Honolulu and Maui, Hawaii; Salem, Ore.; and Seattle later this year.
Sprint Nextel last week invested more than $1.1 billion in Clearwire to help aid the company’s buildout plans through the end of 2010 that are expected to include coverage of approximately 120 million potential customers.
Sprint Nextel also announced that it paid down $1 billion of an outstanding loan under its $4.5 billion revolving credit facility. The carrier said the payment removed an outstanding balance.
At the end of the third quarter Sprint Nextel had $5.9 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments and $1.6 billion in borrowing capacity available under its revolving bank credit facility, for total liquidity of $7.5 billion.
Sprint Nextel also picked up an upgrade on its stock from Credit Suisse from “neutral” to “outperform” with the firm expecting the carrier to turn around its customer losses beginning in 2010.
The news sent Sprint Nextel’s stock up more than 10% in early Monday trading to $3.43 per share.