NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) November 7, 2008—Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings and outlook on Overland Park, Kan.-based wireless carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. (BB/Stable/--) are not affected by the company's amendment of its senior unsecured credit facility. The amendment loosens the total leverage covenant to 4.25x from 3.5x until the 2010 maturity, adds certain domestic subsidiaries as guarantors, and includes a covenant that restricts the payment of cash dividends until certain conditions are met. The amendment also reduces the size of the facility to $4.5 billion from $6 billion. Simultaneously, Sprint Nextel paid down $1 billion under the facility. On a pro forma basis, the company has about $3 billion of cash and $1.3 billion
