RESTON, Va.—Both Sprint Nextel Corp. and its affiliates Horizon Personal Communications Inc. and Bright Personal Communications Services L.L.C. are claiming victory in a lawsuit that pitted them against one another following Sprint Corp.’s acquisition of Nextel Communications Inc. last year.
Horizon and Bright are both subsidiaries of iPCS Inc.
The Delaware Chancery Court decision allows Sprint Nextel to continue to own and operate its iDEN network in the affiliates’ territories. The court “also found no evidence that Sprint Nextel breached any of its confidentiality obligations to the affiliates,” according to the national carrier. Sprint Nextel can sell iDEN products in RadioShack Corp. stores within the affiliates’ service areas, but must continue to respect affiliates’ confidentiality agreements.
Sprint Nextel can also rebrand legacy Nextel stores, but it has to be careful in how it does so—it can indicate that the two companies are now one, but the carrier is not allowed to offer its CDMA phones and services in those stores because the court ruled that Horizon and Bright are the exclusive providers of CDMA services within their territories.
“Sprint Nextel is pleased with the outcome of this case and believes it provides an acceptable framework for Sprint Nextel and Horizon and Bright to continue operating under the existing management agreements,” the carrier said in a statement.
According to iPCS, Sprint Nextel also committed to not waive early termination fees for customers switching from the affiliates to iDEN service, and that it would not use bill inserts to “entice” Horizon and Bright customers to switch to iDEN.
iPCS indicated that it “is optimistic that, so long as Sprint Nextel abides by its commitments, these measures will help protect the company from unbalanced competition with Nextel products in its territory.”
