Sprint Nextel (S) reported this morning that it paid off an outstanding loan worth $1 billion on its $4.5 billion revolving credit facility. As a result, the wireless company no longer has an outstanding balance on its revolving credit facility. At the end of the third quarter, Sprint had $5.9 billion on hand in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, plus $1.6 billion in borrowing capacity under its revolving bank credit facility.

In other Sprint news this morning, Sprint shares were upped from "neutral" to "outperform" at Credit Suisse. Analyst Jonathan Chaplin set his price target at $6, asserting that the company will benefit from cost cutting, stronger sales of prepaid service, and improved customer retention trends. Sprint's stock settled Friday at $3.10, so Chaplin's price target implies expected upside of nearly 94%.

After more than a year of speculation, it seems that German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom will not buy U.S.-based wireless giant Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S). Deutsche Telekom CFO Timotheus Hoettges indicated that the American wireless competitive landscape had consolidated enough, and the control that the four largest wireless carries in the U.S. have wouldn't make a purchase wise.

Hoettges was quoted as saying, "There are four national players in the U.S. market for 300 million households, while in Europe, where we have 350 million households, there are 50 to 70 operators." It's pretty clear that he thinks the U.S. wireless market is controlled by an oligopoly of operators, which seem to move in tandem with each other in terms of price control and roll out of new technology. Do the "large four" -- Verizon (NYSE: VZ)Wireless, AT&T (NYSE: T), Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile USA -- move in lockstep with each other for the most part to not give any of the competition a large advantage?

Clearwire Corp.'s (NASDAQ: CLWR) may be able to relieve some pressure on Sprint Nextel Corp.'s (NYSE: S) national wireless network, according to Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. Although Sprint's existing 3G network is touted to be one of the most reliable in the U.S., moving customers to a more efficient and faster 4G network -- like the ones Clearwire continues to launch -- de-stresses Sprint's existing network.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) sent a letter to its Everything Data customers recently informing them that they could now call any mobile phone number in the U.S. -- at any time -- for free.

Sprint's new Any Mobile, Anytime calling plan gives those customers with at least a $70/month bill this new capability.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) was just rumored to be under the takeover auspices of European telecom giant Deutsche Telekom. DT has been rumored to be looking strongly at Sprint Nextel to bolster its T-Mobile USA brand in the U.S. But now, that deal appears unlikely according to Thomas Weisel analyst James Breen.

Deutsche Telekom may be looking to beef up its T-Mobile USA wireless brand with a takeover of troubled Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S).

Although Sprint Nextel has made strides in trying to keep valuable contract wireless customers, it continues to lose hundreds of thousands of them per quarter. The one bright spot: it's adding hundreds of thousands of less-profitable prepaid wireless customers at the same time through its Boost Mobile prepaid brand.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), the third-largest wireless carrier in the U.S. who continues losing customers every single quarter, is at least trying to jump ahead of the competition on high-tech service offerings. The company will be expanding its WiMAX wireless internet offerings to 17 new cities by the end of 2009.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) has taken the next step to delete more costs from its bottom line by sending the management of its nationwide wireless network to Sweden's Ericsson. The deal -- valued at up to $5 billion -- will allow Sprint to offset its declining subscriber revenue and numbers with lowered costs.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) first spun off its landline telephone business with the company Embarq years ago, and it will now be joining up with Level 3 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: LVLT) to take on the two larger competitors in the long-distance arena. This would pit a joint Sprint-L3 venture in the race with perennial long distance champs AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ).

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) could be hurting itself by making prepaid wireless so affordable, but for now, the wireless carrier is cleaning up. In fact, Sprint Nextel's only shining light is the acquisition of wireless customers with its Boost Mobile prepaid brand. But, could Sprint's prepaid service threaten the larger wireless companies like AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T)?

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), the trying to be the"comeback kid" under CEO and telecom vet Dan Hesse, just lost another swath of customers in its latest quarter. The company reported almost an almost $600 million net loss in its latest quarter as its postpaid (contract) customers continue to defect to the competition.

All in all, this quarter wasn't as bad for Sprint as previous quarters. The third-largest wireless carrier in the U.S lost 182,000 wireless customers last quarter, leaving it with under 50 million total wireless customers. Still, the last quarter of 2008 saw Sprint lose about 1.3 million customers, so this past quarter was quite the marked improvement.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) really hit on something back in January when it rolled out a $50 unlimited everything plan from its Boost Mobile prepaid brand. Customers could get nationwide unlimited minutes, texting, data and walkie-talkie for $50 a month.

Customers went nuts and started snatching up Boost Mobile phones and that plan by the thousands. Soon afterward, other prepaid competitors like T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile followed suit with cheap unlimited plans of their own.

When Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) launched the $50 all-you-can-eat wireless plan with its Boost Mobile prepaid brand back in January, it was a shock to the wireless industry. Indeed, prepaid wireless generally is more expensive and less feature-laden than contract wireless in the U.S. But not even contract wireless plans that featured unlimited talking/texting/web access could be found for $50. What was Sprint Nextel trying to do? Cannibalize itself?

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) was the worst telecom merger in recent memory. The $35 billion merger in 2005 was intended to keep Sprint from becoming a smaller player in the wireless market as competitors were combining and becoming wireless powerhouses.

The only problem was that Sprint and Nextel merged but appeared to keep everything separate. In effect, very little "merged" at all.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) recently posted another dismal quarter as the third-largest wireless carrier in the U.S. lost over a million customers while finally writing off the last $1.6 billion from the disastrous Nextel merger of 2005. The company continues to have slick marketing, a first-class nationwide wireless network and improved customer service. None of these mean a thing if it can't retain customers and recruit new ones from the competition.