NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's)—Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that its ratings and outlook on Overland Park, Kan.-based wireless carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. (B+/Negative/--) are not immediately affected by the FCC's proposal to suspend wholesale wireless provider LightSquared's (unrated) network buildout indefinitely. The FCC's action is based on its belief that LightSquared's spectrum causes harmful interference to global positioning system (GPS) devices and that there is no practical way to mitigate potential interference at this time. In July 2011, Sprint Nextel entered into an agreement with LightSquared that would have allowed Sprint Nextel to purchase capacity on LightSquared's L-band spectrum for Long-Term Evolution (LTE) wireless services and also provide it with LTE credits valued at about $4.5 billion.
