Sprint - Nextel 2011 Annual Report Download - page 53

Table of Contents
under both U.S. GAAP and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), including a consistent definition of the term "fair value." The amendments will be
effective beginning in the first quarter 2012; however, we do not expect the effects to be material.
The FASB issued authoritative guidance regarding Comprehensive Income: Presentation of Comprehensive Income in June 2011, which was subsequently
revised in December 2011, that amends existing guidance to present the total of comprehensive income, the components of net income and the components of other
comprehensive income, in either one continuous statement of comprehensive income or in two consecutive financial statements. The guidance eliminates the option to
present the components of other comprehensive income in the statement of changes in shareholders' equity. The amendments will be effective beginning in the first
quarter 2012, with early adoption permitted, require retrospective application, and will only effect presentation of information in our primary financial statements. We
early adopted the new presentation requirements which resulted in reporting the components of comprehensive income (loss) in the Consolidated Statements of
Comprehensive Loss, rather than in the Consolidated Statements of Shareholders' Equity, as previously reported.
In September 2011, the FASB issued authoritative guidance regarding Testing Goodwill for Impairment which is intended to reduce the cost and complexity of
the annual goodwill impairment test by providing entities with the option of performing a qualitative assessment to determine whether further impairment testing is
necessary. The revised standard will be effective for annual and interim goodwill impairment tests performed beginning in the first quarter 2012, with early adoption
permitted under certain circumstances. We early adopted the provisions of this standard as part of our annual assessment of goodwill with no effect on our financial
statements.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
We include certain estimates, projections and other forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section
21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 in our annual, quarterly and current reports, and in other publicly available material. Statements regarding expectations,
including performance assumptions and estimates relating to capital requirements, as well as other statements that are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements.
These statements reflect management's judgments based on currently available information and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. With respect to these forward-looking statements, management has made assumptions
regarding, among other things, subscriber and network usage, subscriber growth and retention, pricing, operating costs, the timing of various events and the economic and
regulatory environment.
Future performance cannot be assured. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual
results to differ include:
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• our ability to retain and attract subscribers;
• the ability of our competitors to offer products and services at lower prices due to lower cost structures;
• the effects of vigorous competition on a highly penetrated market, including the impact of competition on the price we are able to charge subscribers for
services and equipment we provide and our ability to retain existing subscribers and attract new subscribers; the impact of equipment net subsidy costs;
the impact of increased purchase commitments; the overall demand for our service offerings, including the impact of decisions of new or existing
subscribers between our postpaid and prepaid services offerings and between our two network platforms; and the impact of new, emerging and
competing technologies on our business;
• the ability to generate sufficient cash flow to fully implement our network modernization plan, Network Vision, to improve and enhance our networks
and service offerings, improve our operating margins, implement our business strategies and provide competitive new technologies;
• the effective implementation of Network Vision, including timing, execution, technologies, and costs;
• our ability to migrate subscribers off the Nextel platform and mitigate related increases in churn;
• our ability to access additional spectrum, including through spectrum hosting arrangements;