Sprint Nextel

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Sprint Nextel Corporation, the third largest wireless carrier in the U.S., formed from the 2005 merger of Sprint and Nextel Communications. (AT&T and Verizon are number one and number two respectively). Sprint operates a nationwide digital wireless network with about 53 million customers. It has spun off its local wireline operations to concentrate on wireless broadband. [1] [2]

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

Sprint has been a corporate funder of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).[3] See ALEC Corporations for more.

About ALEC
ALEC is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our ExposedbyCMD.org site.

Political contributions

Sprint Nextel gave $452,000 to federal candidates in the 2006 election cycle through its two political action committees - 45% to Democrats, 55% to Republicans. [4] [5]

Lobbying

The company spent $3,550,547 for lobbying in 2006. $2,050,000 went to 12 outside lobbying firms with the remainder being spent using in-house lobbyists. Two of the firms were Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti and Dutko Worldwide. [6]

Personnel

Key executives and 2006 pay: [7]          Options
exercised
Timothy M. Donahue, Former Executive Chairman    $6,030,000    $14,220,000
Paul N. Saleh, Acting Chief Exec. Officer and Chief Financial Officer    $1,810,000    $0
Barry West, Chief Technology Officer    $976,000    $0
Gary D. Forsee, Executive Director    $1,440,000    $3,360,000
Richard T. C. LeFave, Chief Information Officer    $889,000    $1,030,000

Selected board members: [8]

Directors (2009)

Accessed May 2009: [9]

Contact details

2001 Edmund Halley Drive
Reston, VA 20191
USA
Phone: 703-433-4000
Fax: 703-433-4343
Web: http://www.sprint.com

Resources and articles

Related Sourcewatch articles

References

  1. Profile, Hoovers, accessed July 2007.
  2. History, Sprint Nextel, accessed October 2007.
  3. American Legislative Exchange Council, American Legislative Exchange Council Telecommunications & Information Technology, as of July 18th, 2011, organizational task force membership director, July 18, 2011, p. 22, obtained and released by Common Cause April 2012
  4. PAC C00089342, Open Secrets, accessed July 2007.
  5. PAC C00392852, Open Secrets, accessed July 2007.
  6. Sprint Nextel lobbying expenses, Open Secrets, accessed October 2007.
  7. Sprint Nextel Key Executives, Yahoo Finance, accessed October 2007.
  8. Board of Directors, Sprint Nextel, accessed July 2007.
  9. Directors, Sprint Nextel, accessed May 18, 2009.