NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) April 20, 2006--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it affirmed its A-/Stable/A-2 corporate credit rating on Sprint Nextel Corp. and subsidiaries. At the same time ratings for Conshohocken, Penn.-based wireless carrier UbiquiTel Inc., and all subsidiaries, were placed CreditWatch with positive implications. Sprint Nextel Corp has agreed to purchase UbiquiTel for approximately $1 billion of cash plus the assumption of approximately $424 million of debt. "Given our view on the strategic importance of the Sprint PCS affiliates to Sprint Nextel and the strong likelihood that UbiquiTel's operations will be integrated into Sprint Nextel's core business, we believe that even if Sprint Nextel does not explicitly guarantee UbiquiTel's debt, it will not distinguish the
