Before being acquired by T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 54.3 million customers as of June 30, 2019.

In 2006, Sprint left the local landline telephone business and spun those assets off into a new company named Embarq, which later became a part of Lumen Technologies under the CenturyLink brand, which remains one of the largest long-distance providers in the United States.

In July 2013, as part of the SoftBank transactions, Sprint acquired the remaining shares of the wireless broadband carrier Clearwire Corporation that it did not already own.

[25][26][24] Henson is credited with creating the first major fiber optic network, having recognized it as a way to handle more calls and provide better quality sound.

[36][better source needed] Sprint Corporation entered the Canadian market in the early 1990s as a reseller of bulk long-distance telephone lines that it bought from domestic companies.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse recognized that having two headquarters was not helping the merger effort, sent the wrong message to employees and contributed to the post-merger cultural clash.

The FCC's acting chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and commissioner Ajit Pai both gave statements vociferously supporting the acquisition, saying the deal "serve[s] the public interest".

[78] On November 7, 2012, Sprint Nextel announced the acquisition of 20 MHz of spectrum and 585,000 customers from U.S. Cellular in Chicago, St. Louis, central Illinois and three other Midwest markets.

[84] In 2006, Sprint Nextel exited the local landline telephone business, spinning those assets off into a newly created company named Embarq, which CenturyTel acquired in 2008 to form CenturyLink.

SprintLink has physical presence in 155 countries, including the United States, Western Europe, East Asia, Australia, and India.

It allows enterprise customers to create managed web-based applications In 2015, Sprint powered the Connected Officer program for the Los Angeles Police Department in partnership with Samsung, VMware, and Prodapt.

SPG's branded products and services are sold via web and available at retailers nationwide, including Best Buy, Walmart, Target and other independent dealers.

Outwardly, efforts were made to make it appear as if the network was operated by a single entity under the Sprint name, though complex revenue-sharing agreements were in place which was very similar in nature to cross-carrier roaming tariffs.

Former SRA Members included Alltel Wireless in Montana; This portion of the network was obtained by AT&T during the merger of Alltel and Verizon Wireless, Pioneer Cellular in Kansas and Oklahoma; they ended their agreement with Sprint on March 1, 2012, and transitioned to an agreement with Verizon through the LTE in Rural America program, nTelos; operated in West Virginia and was bought out and merged with Shentel which was a Sprint Affiliate.

Sprint's partner device manufactures included Apple, BlackBerry, HTC, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp, Sonim, and ZTE.

Such Broadband offerings to the home or office without cable or DSL meant the router could be used to provide cheaper VoIP services through Sprint's high-speed network.

[citation needed] On May 16, 2012, Sprint began to allow subscribers to bill application purchases from Google Play to their phone account.

[115] On September 17, 2007, Sprint Nextel launched the Airave, which increased cell reception over an area of 5,000 square feet (460 m2) and could handle up to three calls at once by hooking into an existing broadband connection and using VOIP.

The brand provided mobile and fixed wireless broadband communications services to retail and wholesale customers in Belgium, Spain, and the United States.

Sprint ended the CLEAR brand in September 2013 shortly after it closed its acquisition of Clearwire, and it no longer offers CLEAR-branded products and services to new customers.

[121] Sprint Nextel began offering pre-paid wireless products and services via wholly owned MVNO Common Cents Mobile on May 13, 2010.

[122] Sprint Nextel intended these products and services as a lower-cost alternative, charging $.07 per minute for voice calls with round-down timing and $.07 per text message.

The products and services were initially available through Walmart stores; Sprint Nextel had planned to expand the distribution of Common Cents Mobile to other outlets, but never did.

The iDEN network was originally deployed as a dispatch radio service and is unique in blending the half-duplex push-to-talk one-to-many broadcast capability of a walkie-talkie with the one-to-one private communication of a phone.

In July 2013, Sprint announced its first tri-band products capable of accessing TDD-LTE data connections in the 2.5 GHz band still used for WiMAX.

"[145] Sprint cellphones were product placed in such movies such as Men in Black II (2002), The Departed (2006), Dan in Real Life (2007), Superbad (2007), Wild Hogs (2007), 27 Dresses (2008), Baby Mama (2008), Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2008), Eagle Eye (2008), The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008), Sex and the City (film) (2008), Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009), Bride Wars (2009), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), and The Gambler (2014).

The device offers fans access to "Race telecast and up to seven in-car camera channels, direct audio feeds allowing the user to listen to live driver and team conversations, as well as the radio broadcast and an exclusive audio-replay feature."

[150] Sprint Nextel announced in December 2011 that it reached a multi-year exclusive partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to be the league's official wireless service partner.

[citation needed] Sprint was a major sponsor of the NBC television series Heroes and provided exclusive web content to subscribers.

[citation needed] Sprint was a major sponsor of competition reality shows, such as Big Brother and Survivor on CBS, which enabled viewers to vote each week for "Player of the Game".