UbiquiTel Inc. said it has reached a three-year agreement with network partner Sprint PCS covering a number of inter-carrier issues, including roaming, reseller and back-office rates that UbiquiTel noted would provide immediate savings to its cost structure.
The agreement calls for UbiquiTel to continue to purchase back-office services, including billing, customer care, collections, network control center monitoring, voice mail and other network services through 2006 from Sprint PCS at an approximately 15-percent reduction over the current rate. In addition, both carriers agreed to extend their reciprocal roaming rates and the reseller rates at the current-year rate of 5.8 cents per minute through 2006.
UbiquiTel added the agreement provides a pricing process to determine new rates beyond 2006 for support services, roaming and reseller rates, and provides the company certain protective rights relating to potential new capital spending requirements imposed by Sprint PCS and a most favored nation provision to be offered over the next three years for all future changes that Sprint PCS offers to other affiliates of similar size in their agreements with Sprint PCS.
“We are very pleased at the cost savings and predictability this addendum helps us achieve in future periods,” said Donald Harris, chairman and chief executive officer of UbiquiTel. “With the highest roaming ratio of the public PCS affiliates and with the expected rapid growth in minutes in our reseller channels from the addition of Qwest [Communications International Inc.] customers, we expect the extension of the current roaming and reseller rates will allow our wholesale revenues to grow by approximately 40 percent in 2004.”
In a related agreement, UbiquiTel and Sprint PCS said they have resolved all previously disputed charges between the two companies.
