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) has spent the last two years losing its valued post-paid wireless customers, even as CEO Dan Hesse has tried to stop the bleeding. Sprint has re-invented its marketing and those black and white television commercials are attention getting. But regular and business consumers are not the only users of the Sprint Nextel nationwide wireless network.

Virgin Mobile, one of the first mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in the U.S., is also one of the last. The virtual carrier uses Sprint Nextel's network exclusively throughout the U.S. Other MVNOs like Amp'd Mobile, ESPN Mobile and Disney Mobile have folded in the last few years, leaving Tracfone, Virgin Mobile and Net10 to pick up the slack. Even Virgin Mobile itself purchased Helio, one of the upper-tier MVNOs that also folded. With Sprint wanting as many customers -- its own or from partners like Virgin Mobile -- on its network, the struggling company recently doubled the commission to Virgin Mobile for each new subscriber it signs up.

Instead of paying Virgin Mobile $2.50 per prepaid subscriber, Sprint Nextel has been paying $4.50 per subscriber as of July 2008. The information was just released when Sprint Nextel filed documentation with the SEC, and the increased commission agreement lasts throughout 2009. Is Sprint having success using partners to sign up customers to its network, even it they are not Sprint Nextel customers?

In many ways, they are -- and Sprint Nextel has seen gains from all the customers Virgin Mobile has signed up. Sprint, who lacks a real prepaid service outside the Boost Mobile brand (which is very limited), should look into just buying Virgin Mobile and be done with it. Its larger competitors already have a complete prepaid wireless solution for those customers without stellar credit -- is Sprint ready to get serious about joining that club? It should be.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Glu Mobile, American International and Federated Investors were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• Deutsche Bank downgraded Glu Mobile (NASDAQ: GLUU) shares to Sell from Hold after channel checks indicated that licensing costs are rising sharply for the mobile rights to popular content.
  
• Morgan Stanley cut American International (NYSE: AIG) to Equal Weight from Overweight citing expectations for larger than expected CDS losses vs. management's forecast.
  
• UBS downgraded Federated Investors (NYSE: FII) to Neutral from Buy citing reduced attractiveness for money markets given yield.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Virgin Mobile (NYSE: VM) was downgraded to Market Weight from Overweight at Thomas Weisel and to Sell from Neutral at Merrill.
  
• Oppenheimer cut ORBComm (NASDAQ: ORBC) to Perform from Outperform.
• PNC Financial (NYSE: PNC) was downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at Keefe Bruyette.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) won a $40B contract to turn Airbus jets into "flying gas stations" for U.S. military aircrafts, the Wall Street Journal reported, breaking The Boeing Company's (NYSE: BA) lock on the market.
• Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY) is expected to launch the first covered bond from the country next week, the Financial Times reported. The bank is targeting a benchmark-sized issue worth $1.4B-$4.2B.
• The Financial Times also reported that Indian conglomerate Tata has concluded an agreement with Virgin Mobile USA Inc (NYSE: VM) to launch a cellular phone brand in India. The brand, called Virgin Mobile in India, would target young Indians under a franchise agreement with Tata Teleservices.

WEB SITES:

• Bloomberg reported that former JP Morgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) Vice Chairman Donald Layton is expected to be named E*Trade Financial Corporation's (NASDAQ: ETFC) new CEO. In an interview, Layton said he may consider a sale of the troubled online brokerage if it "made sense" for shareholders.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Cisco Systems, Virgin Mobile and Polo Ralph Lauren were today's noteworthy downgrades:

• JP Morgan downgraded shares of Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO) to Neutral from Overweight following its Q2 results, as they believe the company's international exposure is not enough to offset slowing in North America and Europe. Shares were also downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Baird, citing the meaningful slowdown in fundamentals.
• Lehman downgraded Virgin Mobile USA Inc (NYSE: VM) to Equal Weight from Overweight based on reduced visibility following its Q4 report.
• Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE: RL) was lowered to Hold from Buy at Citigroup, as they believe the company is facing fundamental challenges in key markets and a lack of visibility on the Japanese market. They see more upsideelsewhere.

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Bear Stearns downgraded BT Group Plc (NYSE: BT) to Peer Perform from Outperform.
• Think Equity lowered Napster Inc (NASDAQ: NAPS) to Accumulate from Buy.
• UBS downgraded Elbit Systems Ltd (NASDAQ: ESLT) to Neutral from Buy.

I first took up a camera around the age of nine, but it wasn't until I discovered Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO)'s Flickr photo-sharing site that my "career" in photography really took off. While I'm certainly not hitting the runways of Milan with my Pentax PZ-1P anytime soon, this year I sold several photographs and permitted dozens of others to use my work under the Creative Commons license with which I offer my photos. (My choice is a non-commercial attribution license; as I use many of my photos for work, here on BloggingStocks, I'd hate to see rivals utilizing them as well.)

After extensive conversations with IP attorneys and other authorities in the industry, and given my responsibility of overseeing the use of thousands of photos each year, my grasp of all the legal issues surrounding commercial use of intellectual property is deep. One of the thorniest issues is that of what's called "model release," in other words, if someone's IN your photo, can you still use it?