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Press Release -- March 20th, 2012
Source: Sprint Nextel
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Sprint Enhances 3G Network Coverage in St. Louis

As the city prepares to welcome its world-champion baseball team for a new season, Sprint customers in the Gateway City are enjoying a 15 percent increase in 3G enhancements

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), March 20, 2012 – Thanks to recent 3G capacity upgrades from Sprint (NYSE:S, news, filings), residents of the Gateway City can clearly tell friends and family to “Meet Me in St. Louis” this spring, whether it’s for a baseball game, post-season college basketball game or a bike ride through Forest Park.

In the past 90 days, Sprint has implemented 32 network capacity upgrades in the St. Louis area, with 30 scheduled throughout Missouri for the next 90 days. Whether it’s St. Charles, Chesterfield, Creve Coeur or Kirkwood, Sprint customers in metro St. Louis should expect faster data speeds, fewer dropped calls and confidence that Sprint is committed to investing in Missouri and keeping pace with the ever-increasing demand for data.

So what exactly do these upgrades mean for customers? It means an even easier wireless experience. Want to catch the latest news on St. Louis’ favorite baseball team? Click on the Sprint ID ESPN pack in seconds to find out the latest. Want to watch the trailer for the new season of St. Louis’ own “Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s”? Watch it on YouTube with ease.

Over the past year, Missouri has seen its Sprint 3G coverage increase by almost 15 percent, resulting in an improved wireless experience for the state, including voice, data and in-building solutions. These enhancements to the Sprint 3G network also should serve to bolster performance of the company’s no-contract brands, including devices operating on the Sprint network from Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA.

“Sprint has a strong and solid presence in St. Louis,” said Rob Bryant, regional vice president, consumer sales. “Not only do we employ hundreds of people throughout the state, but we’ve taken a leadership position with our enhanced wireless 3G network at Washington University. These latest 3G network enhancements only serve to solidify our substantial investment in St. Louis.”

Missouri is not the only state benefiting from Sprint’s network commitment. Nationwide, Sprint is overhauling its entire network and replacing existing equipment with new, advanced equipment through the Network Vision program.

Announced in December 2010, Network Vision is planned to consolidate multiple network technologies into one seamless network with the goal of increasing efficiency and enhancing network coverage, call quality and data speeds for customers. Smartphone penetration is expected to double over the next four years.* With Network Vision, Sprint is making it easier for data to travel so smartphone customers – who average 10 times more data use than feature phone customers* – can use their devices the way they were meant.

Network Vision and the recent upgrades reflect Sprint’s commitment to customer service. Sprint is unbeaten among all national carriers and most improved in customer satisfaction, across all 47 industries, over the past three years, according to the 2011 American Customer Satisfaction Index. The survey showed Sprint as the most improved company in customer satisfaction, across all industries, over the past three years.

As Sprint adds capacity across the country on the existing network – 28,513 upgrades in 2011– Network Vision work on 38,000 cell sites is underway. For a detailed look at capacity upgrades in different markets, visit www.sprint.com/network.

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 55 million customers at the end of 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. 3 in its 2011 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.

*Source: Mobile Access 2010, PEW INTERNET & AMERICAN LIFE PROJECT

“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, migration of services new technologies, timing of deployment, and products and services, 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; efficiencies and cost savings of multimode technologies; customer and network usage; customer growth and retention; service, coverage and quality; 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 in its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2011.

Contact(s):

Sprint
Candace Johnson, 317-660-2232
Candace.Johnson@sprint.com

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