Sprint and Crown Castle Extend Relationship to Enable Network Vision

Deal between Sprint and Crown Castle represents an important milestone in the delivery of Network Vision, clearing the way for spectrum flexibility and creating a high degree of cost predictability for Sprint

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), July 27, 2011 – Sprint (NYSE:S, news, filings) today announced it has amended important contracts with Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI) to enable the delivery of the next-generation networks through Sprint’s Network Vision plan. The agreement impacts more than 10,000 of Sprint’s nationwide cell sites.

Network Vision, announced in December, is expected to provide an enhanced network experience by improving voice quality and providing faster data speeds while creating network flexibility, reducing operating costs and improving environmental sustainability. The agreement with Crown Castle helps enable several of these benefits.

The agreement:

• Establishes uniform rates for deploying all Network Vision sites rather than negotiating tower contracts on a site-by-site basis. This provides a high degree of cost predictability to Sprint as its network evolves and grows.
• Provides Sprint with the flexibility it needs to deploy next-generation technologies and to affect its future migration from iDEN.
• Could enable a quicker deployment of Network Vision by allowing Sprint to operate existing equipment simultaneously with the new Network Vision equipment for a period of time to ensure a smooth transition for customers.

“We are pleased to reach this agreement with Crown Castle as we evolve our networks to meet the needs of our growing customer base,” said John Harrison, Sprint vice president, network supplier performance management. “We look forward to a continued relationship as we roll out Network Vision sites nationwide.”

Since the announcement of Network Vision, Sprint has been aggressively working with its vendors to plan, test and begin site preparations. In the lab, calls have successfully been completed on 800 MHz 1x voice, 1x data and SMS. Nineteen hundred calls on MHz 1x voice, 1x data, SMS and EVDO have also been completed. Work has begun on thousands of sites and renegotiation of existing contracts with tower companies is an important step in launching these sites later this year.

About Crown Castle

Crown Castle owns, operates, and leases towers and other infrastructure for wireless communications. Crown Castle offers significant wireless communications coverage to 92 of the top 100 US markets and to substantially all of the Australian population. Crown Castle owns, operates and manages over 22,000 and approximately 1,600 wireless communication sites in the US and Australia, respectively. For more information on Crown Castle, please visit www.crowncastle.com.

About Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 51 million customers at the end of 1Q 2011 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 6 in its 2010 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.

“Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

* This news release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the securities laws. The statements in this news release regarding network performance, coverage and capabilities, business and network efficiencies, including expected financial savings, new technologies, products and services, environmental sustainability, and the business outlook and performance, as well as other statements that are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements. The words “estimate,” “project,” “forecast,” “intend,” “expect,” “believe,” “target,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are estimates and projections reflecting management’s judgment based on currently available information and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by the forward-looking statements. With respect to these forward-looking statements, management has made assumptions regarding, among other things, development and deployment of new technologies; operating costs; efficiencies and cost savings of multimode technologies; customer and network usage; customer growth and retention; pricing; service, coverage and quality; environmental sustainability; repurpose of spectrum; availability of devices; the timing of various events and the economic environment. Sprint Nextel believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable; however, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations and speak only as of the date of this release. Sprint Nextel is not obligated to publicly release any revisions to forward-looking statements to reflect events after the date of this release. Sprint Nextel provides a detailed discussion of risk factors in periodic SEC filings, including its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2010, in Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” and in Part II, Item 1A “Risk Factors,” of its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2011.

Disclosure

*Lessor (or an Affiliate of Lessor) is permitted to make generic disclosures relating to Lessor entering into an agreement that permits the installation of Network Vision Equipment on its towers or installation of Network Vision Equipment along with hosting and each with an adjustment in rent.