NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Nov. 10, 2010--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that our recent downgrade of 54%-owned Clearwire Corp. (CCC/Watch Dev/--) do not immediately affect our ratings on Overland Park, Kan.-based wireless carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. (BB-/Negative/--). In our view, it is possible that a default by Clearwire could trigger a cross-default provision under an indenture governing about $9.9 billion of Sprint Capital Corp. debt. A key uncertainty is whether Clearwire could be considered a subsidiary of Sprint Nextel as defined in the indenture, given that Sprint Nextel has a 54% economic stake in Clearwire, but does not control Clearwire's board of directors. Nevertheless, we believe Sprint Nextel could elect certain actions to help Clearwire avert a
