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.

When CEO vet Dan Hesse joined Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) over a year ago, the 20+ year telecom vet probably knew what was in store for him. The third-largest wireless carrier in the U.S. was bleeding subscribers to the competition every quarter, the future of Sprint's 4G high-speed national wireless network was in doubt and the company really did not have a hit product like the iPhone on its shelves.

Add that to the ongoing mess with the Nextel brand and Hesse had one large job to face in the corner office. Although many of those issues still exist today in some form, Hesse will be the first to say that Sprint's in it for the long, successful haul. Still, the company is expected from market analysts to post a quarterly loss of $0.02 per share when it reports Q4 numbers later today. Sprint's Hesse seems to indicate that while Sprint is certainly down, it's nowhere near out.

Fiber-optic entity Qwest Communications (NYSE: Q), whose colleagues include Verizon (NYSE: VZ), AT&T (NYSE: T), and Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S), reported Q4 numbers on Tuesday. Revenues declined by 3%, and adjusted income came in at 12 cents per share, which, according to this article, beat estimates by two pennies.

Well, I have to say, I've been wrong about Qwest. When I last wrote about the tech company, I had a very bearish view. I think Qwest's stock gained a buck since that piece, which is like a huge percentage gain when you consider that the shares closed yesterday at $3.45. The market seems to be liking Qwest's prospects. Going back to that article I cited concerning the earnings beat, I see some positive opinion on Qwest's quarter. I'll agree, it wasn't bad, especially when the economy is considered. The company did well in terms of cash flow: cash from operations for the year was roughly flat while adjusted free cash flow came in at $1.4 billion.

Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) continues to be bashed in the business media every other week it seems. The third-largest wireless company in the U.S. has shed hundreds of thousands of customers in the last 18 months as the larger competition has snagged customers with stellar sellers like Apple, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 3G and other high-end handsets.

Sprint announced 8,000 layoffs this week, adding to the massive employee headcount lost by major corporations in the last three months. With losses in four of the past five quarters, massive layoffs and a shrinking customer base, is Sprint in real trouble? Not really -- it still has over 50 million wireless subscribers. Should it have lobbied to win the contract with Apple for the iPhone? While we'll never know if that was even possible, that one partnership alone could have completely reversed Sprint's fortunes in the last 24 months. The carrier is hoping the Palm Pre can make up for last ground, though. It may, but that one hand of cards can't win the poker tournament.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) has had a hard knock life recently. The third-largest wireless carrier has seen hundreds of thousands of customers leave it for greener pastures in the last few years. Having the Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone go to another carrier was part of that problem. However, the impending launch of the Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) Pre touchscreen smartphone will help reverse that situation a little bit.

Investors are betting that the struggling Palm joining the struggling Sprint for this product launch will help both companies recover from their respective slumps. Elevation Partners has dumped hundreds of millions of dollars into Palm's lap recently as the "do or die" smartphone maker attempts to resuscitate itself. This is not some flighty money -- this comes with some serious backing by some impressive investors. It was a risky bet launching the arguably most important product in the last five years on Sprint's network with the shape the carrier is in, losing customers and all. Someone out there believes in this partnership. Do you?

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) has urged President Obama's administration to pony up $2 billion dollars to build and enable a nationwide emergency wireless network that could help response teams and first responders immensely when a disaster occurs. While that may not be high on the new President's priority list, it should fall in there somewhere in the next 18 months.

There is still no nationwide advanced communications network to assist responders as soon and efficiently as possible in the wake of a terrorist or natural disaster. Thinking back to overloaded wireless networks (and non-functioning towers) during the Hurricane Katrina disaster, there's the proof that something like this is needed. Is Sprint the right company to build it? It says $2 billion and one year is all that it would take.

Sprint's suggestion says the $2 billion -- which would come from the "bailout money" (whatever that is, heh) -- would make a new emergency network operable for up to five years. It would include 100 satellite-based cells placed strategically around the U.S. and 100,000 ready-to-use handsets to work on the new network. Perhaps this is Sprint's way to continue utilizing its Nextel assets for something other than a network that loses customers every quarter.

Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) may be the initial retail partner to carry what is turning out to be a the most talked-about wireless handset since the iPhone made its debut over two years ago. The Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) Palm Pre, which will initially only be available on the Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) network, will benefit immensely from finding the right retail partner to boost sales.

So far, it's too hard to tell how well the Pre will do against the iPhone and other handsets based on Windows Mobile or Android -- but early previews are encouraging. The Pre packs a decent amount of horsepower with one slick design -- and it would be amusing to see it marketed alongside the iPhone at Best Buy. Best Buy was also the first retailer partner to be able and sell the iPhone last September, so scoring the Pre would be another win for the retailer.

Can the Pre save Palm from oblivion? That's hard to imagine, but this single product launch is probably the most important in the history of the company. Without a knockout product that sells like gangbusters, Palm may not have much left in its intellectual or technological arsenal. It's a big gamble, but a gamble, the company must make. Best Buy's large hand in the Pre's upcoming sales will be a huge boon to both Palm and Sprint.

Sprint Nextel Corp.'s (NYSE: S) may be slicing further into its worker ranks this year, according to company CEO Dan Hesse. Hesse, who came to the top job just over a year ago, has managed to remake Sprint's marketing and has somewhat stemmed the customer defections from Sprint, although the company continues to lose customers every quarter. Still, Hesse has done many things right to get Sprint under control. He's just not completely there yet. Reducing headcount to save expenses has also been a priority for Hesse.

About a week ago, Hesse indicated that "from a profitability point of view, job one has to be about doing something about the top line and subscriber numbers ... we can take costs out and we will continue to do that, just like we did last year ... we will do more of that in 2009." In other words, look for more Sprint Nextel layoffs to be announced probably in the first quarter or in the second. The company let 4,000 workers go in 2008.

Sprint has a lot going for it. It's going to be the sole carrier for the new Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) Pre, which is being touted as the first serious competitor to Apple, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone. The company's marketing is what I would consider first-rate and edgy -- and full of energy. It's just not gaining customers, and a recent competitive merger won't make things much easier. It has apparently improved its customer service though, which is a great sign. Now, if it could just sign up those customers by the hundreds of thousands.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) has joined up with Palm Inc. (NASDAQ: PALM) to again keep the once-innovative smartphone maker in business. It was widely rumored that the budget-priced Palm Centro smartphone was the single product that kept Palm on life support in 2008, and the just-announced Palm Pre may stake claim to providing the same status for Palm in 2009.

The new Palm Pre, which will launch exclusively on Sprint Nextel very soon (no firm date yet), is Palm's most radical smartphone development in over five years. Since the Palm Treo 600 launched in 2003, Palm's product designs, operating system and overall consumer marketing have been boring and staid. Palm's financial results during the last few years have borne this out. With all the state-of-the-art smartphone competition these days, Palm was looked at as a complete, obsolete dinosaur. Can the new Pre save it?

The device has already been called the "Palm iPhone" by many after it was announced yesterday. It has a full touchscreen with just a single button (trackball, actually) on the face. But the Pre also includes a slide-down full keyboard, something that has deterred many from the iPhone so far (even with its tremendous success in spite of that).

Sprint is probably glad to have something exclusive for the time being, as well as a much talked-about smartphone that may draw in customers. But, when Palm CEO Ed Colligan indicated that "this platform is going to be the basis for innovation at Palm for a decade to come," Palm needs to recognize that it won't even exist in half that time if it doesn't continuously step up and play with the newer, faster and more well-funded competitors.

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.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), the national wireless carrier that can't stop hemorrhaging customers quarter after quarter, may close up to 20 of its customer call centers starting in 2009 as it moves to aggressively cuts costs.

Sprint Chief Service Officer Bob Johnson said the cuts were caused by declining customer calls and fewer billing and service questions. This makes sense: Sprint Nextel has lost millions of customers in the last 18 months. It seems pretty natural to not need all those call center representatives if the call volume is dropping.

But that's not all. Not enough Spring employees have signed up for recently-announced buyout packages, which is forcing Sprint Nextel's hand at more layoffs beyond the 4,000 employees pink slips it gave at the start of this year. Sprint Nextel has improved its customer service -- which was the bane of its existence -- but those improvements came as the U.S. economy took a nosedive and competitor AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T) sold the heck out of the iPhone 3G at Sprint's expense.

The only thing Sprint can do is to become a leader in something, and customer service would be a great area to really make a difference in. Wireless has been and still is a commodity service, even with calling plans, coverage and data speeds being slightly different between all national carriers. The one thing that could be a big differentiator is customer service. Trying to get corporations to hear that call seems like a futile exercise in most cases, which is unfortunate.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) seems to be clinging to life as it leeches wireless customers to the competition and desperately tries to get employees to take buyout clauses. Since the company can't find a soul to buy its Nextel national U.S. wireless network, it must nevertheless stop owning and operating that network where affiliate iPCS has its wireless territory.

Perhaps Sprint can just turn off the Nextel wireless network in those areas and have a wireless parts garage sale? It won't be able to get rid of that network infrastructure to make at least a little money. Who would want it? Answer: nobody. A court found this week that Sprint is already in violation of its agreement with iPCS and must shut down its Nextel network in iPCS's territories, so there is nothing Sprint Nextel can do, except get the blowtorches and dumptrucks ready.

The problem for Sprint, however, is not equipment mothballing. It has 500,000 Nextel subscribers in iPCS territory. What does it do with them? If the company has to shave half a million subscribers, that would be disastrous to a wireless company already losing hundreds of thousands of customers per year. Look for Sprint to settle with iPCS before the end of 2008 by whatever means possible. It can't afford to lose any more customers.