Sprint Nextel Named Authorized Vendor for The Quilt

Sprint Nextel offers Quilt members connectivity to one of the most reliable, high performing Tier 1 IP backbone in the industry

Dallas, TX — 10/09/2006 - Further strengthening its commitment to higher education institutions, Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) today announced its selection as an authorized vendor for The Quilt, a highly respected coalition of advanced regional network organizations representing a majority of the most prestigious universities across the U.S. With this new relationship, Quilt members now have access to Sprint’s highly acclaimed Tier 1 IP network at highly competitive prices.

“Sprint is best positioned to offer truly integrated services as a result of its converged, wholly-owned and integrated wireless and wireline national networks,” says Craig Carroll, national director of education, Sprint. “Our relationship with The Quilt demonstrates our continued commitment to our wireline capabilities which provide safe, scalable, always-on network access via one of the most reliable, high-performing IP backbones in the industry.”

The Quilt plays a respected and trusted role within the networking and broader information technology communities. The Quilt membership is made up of 24 regional non-profit network aggregators within the United States who collectively serve more than one hundred participants and pass traffic for a significant portion of U.S. university/college sites as well as K-12 state education networks. The Quilt partners with vendors like Sprint to leverage best practices and deliver networking services at lower costs and higher performance. Many Quilt members now have the option to buy IP services directly from Sprint, eliminating the time and hassle spent in RFPs. Through this new status, members can buy networking services that are low cost, secure and reliable.

“We always seek vendor partners who are not only able to provide the best value, but are also at the forefront of technology,” says Hud Croasdale, executive director of The Quilt. “We are very excited to work with Sprint, a company that we believe will work closely with Quilt members to develop and expand technology beyond that of a standard provider-customer relationship.”

The Sprint IP portfolio offers a single IP connection for local, long distance, data, and Internet access; a single voicemail platform for all locations; and an integrated wireless and wireline business applications. Uniquely positioned with a broad wireless and wireline portfolio, Sprint customers benefit from an integrated solutions approach, enabling them to make just about anyplace a workplace. Indiana University, a Quilt member, selected Sprint as its primary provider of IP services because of the competitive pricing, a defined roadmap for IPv6 and a superior multicasting solution that is native to the Sprint backbone. Sprint was the first Internet Service Provider (ISP) to offer native multicasting, end-to-end, on the Internet across an autonomous system — reducing traffic, and therefore cost, by delivering a single stream of content to multiple end-users.

“Confidence in knowing your IP solutions will be delivered on a strong network from a trusted, knowledgeable partner like Sprint is key to our administration, students and faculty,” says David Jent, director of network infrastructure at Indiana University. “We selected Sprint because their solutions meet our demands for flexible, secure connectivity while bringing opportunities for cost-savings and more efficient management of resources.”

About Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of communications services bringing mobility to consumer, business and government customers. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two robust wireless networks offering industry leading mobile data services; instant national and international walkie-talkie capabilities; and an award-winning and global Tier 1 Internet backbone. For more information, visit www.sprint.com.

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Sukhi Sahni

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Sprint Nextel

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