Sprint - Nextel 2007 Annual Report Download - page 8

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 8 of the 2007 Sprint - Nextel annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 142

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97
  • 98
  • 99
  • 100
  • 101
  • 102
  • 103
  • 104
  • 105
  • 106
  • 107
  • 108
  • 109
  • 110
  • 111
  • 112
  • 113
  • 114
  • 115
  • 116
  • 117
  • 118
  • 119
  • 120
  • 121
  • 122
  • 123
  • 124
  • 125
  • 126
  • 127
  • 128
  • 129
  • 130
  • 131
  • 132
  • 133
  • 134
  • 135
  • 136
  • 137
  • 138
  • 139
  • 140
  • 141
  • 142

Under the terms of the commercial arrangements with the PCS Affiliates, our wireless services are offered
under the Sprint brand on CDMA networks built and operated at the expense of the PCS Affiliates. In most
instances, the PCS Affiliates use spectrum licensed to, and controlled by, us. The PCS Affiliates operate mainly
in and around smaller U.S. metropolitan areas.
CDMA subscribers can use their phones through roaming agreements in countries other than the United
States, including areas of Asia Pacific, Central and South America, North America and most major Caribbean
islands. Our digital quad band devices can utilize global system for mobile communications, or GSM,
technology, the network technology utilized by many wireless providers throughout Europe and other parts of the
world, which enables subscribers to roam in numerous countries outside the U.S., including countries in Europe.
We are deploying the high-speed EV-DO technology across our CDMA network. EV-DO increases average
mobile-device data speeds up to ten times faster when compared to the prior generation technology. In addition,
this technology delivers applications and services available only on EV-DO-capable handsets and laptops
equipped with EV-DO-capable Sprint PCS Connection CardsTM. The services supported by this technology,
marketed as Power Vision, give consumer and business customers access to numerous sophisticated applications
using EV-DO-capable devices, including mobile desktop, data messaging, photo and video offerings,
entertainment and location-based applications. Currently, EV-DO technology covers nearly 234 million people
and serves customers in over 236 communities with populations of at least 100,000, which represents the
majority of the footprint of our CDMA network. EV-DO data roaming is available in selected markets in Canada
and Mexico.
We have incorporated EV-DO Rev. A, the most recent version of EV-DO technology, into over 82% of our
CDMA network. We anticipate incorporating EV-DO Rev. A into all new cell sites added to our CDMA network
in 2008. EV-DO Rev. A is designed to support a variety of IP, video and high performance walkie-talkie
applications on our CDMA network.
The cell site equipment used in the CDMA network often resides on buildings or communications towers,
most of which are leased from third parties. The acquisition of Nextel has given us access to cell site
communications towers erected for use in connection with the Nextel iDEN network, which in some cases
enables us to co-locate CDMA cell site equipment on these towers. Similarly, in certain circumstances, we are
able to co-locate iDEN cell site equipment on the CDMA communications towers. We also locate cell site
equipment on buildings and deploy in-building systems and outdoor distributed antenna systems where cell site
solutions are not feasible.
iDEN Network
We provide our Nextel-branded post-paid and Boost Mobile-branded prepaid wireless services over our
iDEN network. Our iDEN network is an all-digital packet data network based on iDEN wireless technology
provided by Motorola, Inc. We are the only national wireless service provider in the United States that utilizes
iDEN technology, and, generally, the iDEN handsets that we currently offer are not enabled to roam onto
wireless networks that do not utilize iDEN technology. We operate iDEN networks in 355 metropolitan markets,
including 336 of the top 349 U.S. markets, where about 266 million people live or work.
We have roaming or interoperability agreements with iDEN-based wireless service providers that operate in
selected areas of Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru, which gives subscribers of iDEN-based
services the ability to utilize our walkie-talkie services to communicate to and from these markets. Subscribers
can also get voice only services when roaming on iDEN-based wireless service providers in areas of Singapore,
the Philippines, South Korea, Israel, Jordan and Guam. With an i930 or i920 iDEN handset, subscribers are able
to roam in numerous countries outside the U.S., including countries in Europe. These handsets utilize GSM
technology. In addition, any iDEN subscriber can remove the subscriber identity module, or SIM, card found in
each iDEN handset and place it in any unlocked device that utilizes GSM technology when traveling outside of
the U.S.
6