Sprint Suffers Fiber Cuts

RESTON, Va. -- At approximately 3:30 p.m. EST (12:30 PST) on Jan. 9, 2006, a fiber cut between Phoenix, Ariz. and Palm Springs, Calif. has impacted Sprint Nextel’s wireless, wireline and long distance service along the West Coast.

At the time the cut occurred west of Phoenix, Sprint Nextel was conducting emergency maintenance to its fiber optic network near Reno Junction, Calif., which is near Reno, Nev. The traffic passing through Reno was being temporarily routed through the network near Phoenix as part of the standard emergency maintenance plan.

This resulted in a "dual" fiber cut affecting traffic going to and coming from the west coast and other western parts of the United States.

The Phoenix fiber cut impacts:

Sprint Nextel technicians have suspended the emergency maintenance near Reno so we can quickly restore as much traffic as possible. Other Sprint Nextel technicians are at the site of the Phoenix cut and will begin repairing the fiber cut as soon as possible.

Sprint apologizes to its customers for the inconvenience to its customers. We are working to restore service as soon as possible.

Update: 1/9/06, 10:00 p.m. EST: For the cut near Reno Junction, the splice repair was completed around 6:30 p.m. EST; the cut near Phoenix was repaired around 7:00 p.m. EST; and service began to restore immediately. All impacted services have now been restored.

Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S)