Source: Sprint Press Release

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE:S) today announced that the company will take actions in the first quarter of 2009 to reduce internal and external labor costs by approximately $1.2 billion on an annualized basis. The actions include the elimination of approximately 8,000 positions within the company, which is expected to be largely completed by March 31. The positions to be eliminated will impact all levels of the company, and the impact on geographic locations will vary.

The reduction total includes approximately 850 positions expected to be eliminated under a voluntary separation plan started late last year. The company expects to recognize a charge in excess of $300 million in the first quarter of 2009 for severance and related costs associated with the reduction.

"Labor reductions are always the most difficult action to take, but many companies are finding it necessary in this environment," said Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. "We continue to improve the customer experience and these improvements are reflected in much higher levels of satisfaction in customer surveys and in independent performance tests. Our commitment to quality will not change."

Sprint has seen a notable reduction in calls per subscriber to customer care and increased customer satisfaction resulting from customer service improvements. The company is committed to these high standards of customer care and innovation. In line with this commitment, the headcount reductions in these functions will be less than in non-customer facing groups. Furthermore, the company's networks continue to operate with current best-ever metrics and has resulted in Sprint being named by Gizmodo as the winner of its nationwide 3G data test last month. Sprint also offers customers the best value in the industry plus high-performance devices like the Samsung Instinct(TM), the BlackBerry Curve(TM) and the upcoming Palm Pre(TM), that make it easy for customers to enjoy everything their wireless handsets can do.

Source: Sprint Press Release

In today's challenging economic environment, businesses need to pay only for the tools that are critical to how they conduct business. With new and unique Nextel Direct Connect Custom Plans available from Sprint (NYSE:S), businesses can do exactly that. They can easily select a plan that includes the tools their workgroups use most and the flexibility to add a bucket of minutes based on what will actually be used. The new plans provide unlimited Direct Connect, Group Connect, Mobile-to-Mobile, Text Messaging and Picture Mail, starting at $29.99 per month.

With other mobile providers, a business is asked to choose a plan based on monthly anytime voice minutes required per user and then pay incrementally for features such as push-to-talk, text messaging and picture mail. While this approach makes sense for consumers, businesses use mobile communications tools differently and need plans to address the fact that most communication occurs between workgroup members. With Nextel Direct Connect Custom Plans, the focus is on key services used most by workgroups, which are bundled with unlimited usage, at a low flat monthly rate. A business can then attach a bucket of anytime voice minutes to be shared with the entire workgroup.

Specifically, businesses can choose from the following Nextel Direct Connect Custom Plans:

• Unlimited Workgroup Communications -- with unlimited Direct Connect and Group Connect(R) plus unlimited text messaging, mobile-to-mobile minutes and night and weekend minutes starting at 9 p.m. o $29.99 per month per line.
• Web & Navigation -- includes the above features, plus unlimited data, Web browsing and GPS navigation o $39.99 per month per line for Nextel phones. o $49.99 per month per line for PowerSource and Nextel Direct Connect capable Sprint phones.
• Pooled voice minutes can be added to either plan for the group to share o 500 minutes for $30 per month per line. o Or 2,000 minutes for $100 per month per line.