Sprint Nextel gives customers access in Canada, Mexico

Sprint Nextel Corp. announced Wednesday that its customers will have access to wireless phone services in Canada and Mexico.

These services are available as part of reciprocal agreements with wireless service providers Bell Canada and Iusacell in Mexico. With this deal, Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) becomes the only U.S. operator to provide high-speed wireless services throughout Canada and Mexico.



John Dubois, director of global roaming for Sprint Nextel, said this deal was something the company had been planning for a while and is part of a larger expansion of international services. Within the next year, Sprint Nextel plans to be offering high-speed wireless service in major markets around the world, he said.

Sprint Nextel expresses concern about AT&T-BellSouth merger

Less than a year after federal regulators blessed its $35 billion mega-merger, Sprint Nextel Corp. has filed opposition against AT&T Inc.'s $67 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp.

A prime concern of Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) is that an AT&T-BellSouth would control 99 percent of the wireline access at Sprint Nextel's wireless towers in the AT&T and BellSouth service territories. Sprint Nextel must pay the wireline companies to access those high-capacity lines and route wireless calls.

In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission on Monday, Sprint Nextel noted that AT&T and BellSouth also jointly own rival Cingular Wireless, "thereby increasing the merged company's incentive to use its special access pricing flexibility to benefit Cingular."

Sprint Nextel outlined a dozen conditions the FCC should place on the merger before approving it. Those conditions include prohibiting AT&T from increasing certain access rates for 30 months.

Sprint Nextel, the No. 3 wireless carrier nationally, did not disclose in the filing how much money it spends with AT&T and BellSouth on the access fees for wireless calls.