| [September 03, 2005] |
 |
Service Restoration Begins for Sprint Nextel Customers along Gulf Coast; Company Developing Pricing and Billing Policies for Affected Customers
RESTON, Va. --(Business Wire)-- Sept. 3, 2005 -- Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) today announced that service restoration efforts for customers along the Gulf Coast are paying dividends as more and more wireless sites and wireline services ravaged by Hurricane Katrina are coming back online.
"This storm literally has all Sprint Nextel engineers and technicians working tirelessly to restore service," said Sal Todaro, Sprint Nextel area vice president of the Southeast, including Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. "While the situation in New Orleans is still tenuous, we are starting to see improvement in other areas of Louisiana and in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. For example, in Mississippi, Sprint Nextel has restored more than 75 percent of the wireless service impacted by the storm."
New Orleans, meanwhile, continues to remain a challenge. Flooding, power and safety concerns are hampering service restoration for all telecommunications providers. Sprint has assembled a massive command center and restoration team near Baton Rouge to effect repairs where it is safe to do so.
Sprint Nextel also is working with local, state and federal authorities to restore service. Sprint Nextel's Emergency Response Team has made available more than 3,000 phones to local, state and federal emergency personnel in the affected areas. Those phones have added communications capabilities that allow users to use their walkie-talkie service to keep in touch even when beyond wireless coverage or when regular phone lines are unavailable. Sprint Nextel will continue to provide communications support to assist in restoration efforts.
"Sprint Nextel understands the magnitude of the issues facing the survivors of Hurricane Katrina," said Todaro. "It has always been our policy to do what is right and fair when our customers face adversity. Currently, we are enhancing that policy so that customers in the affected areas can make calls and send text messages to friends and families without the burden of worrying about roaming, overages and other billing issues."
Details of the pricing and billing policies will be communicated shortly.
Employees Accounted For and Assistance Provided
Sprint Nextel has approximately 350 employees in the four-state region directly impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Since the hurricane made landfall on Monday morning, the company has made contact with all employees via phone, email or text message to assess their physical safety and immediate needs.
To assist impacted employees, Sprint Nextel is developing a plan to temporarily reassign employees to other jobs in the company as needed and will continue paying employees through this difficult time as the situation is assessed. In addition, the company will be providing emergency interest-free loans as needed and makes available to all employees the Employee Assistance Program which is a 24/7 confidential counseling resource.
Wireline, Wireless Services Affected
Sprint Nextel has made progress in restoring wireless and wireline services across the Gulf Coast. Technicians have rerouted long-distance traffic around New Orleans enabling Sprint Nextel local telephone company customers to make long-distance calls in the Tallahassee area and in the Florida Panhandle, including Ft. Walton Beach. Sprint Nextel teams continue to work to restore dedicated Internet access to corporate customers in northern Florida.
Sprint Nextel also has made significant progress in restoring wireless service in Baton Rouge and across the state of Mississippi, also hit hard by Katrina. More than 75 percent of wireless services in Mississippi is now operational. Safety issues continue to make it more difficult to get to some sites in the region to effect repairs.
Community Relations Outreach
Sprint Nextel is supporting the American Red Cross in its largest hurricane relief operation in history by providing significant financial support. The company's support includes $250,000 from the Sprint Nextel Foundation, a Sprint Nextel corporation employee matching program expected to include an additional $200,000. The overall support by Sprint Nextel to the American Red Cross for its relief efforts will also include considerable in-kind giving of several hundred wireless phones and service to enable critical communication in the coming weeks and months, as well as considerable promotion of the American Red Cross' relief efforts on the Sprint website, at upcoming NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series(TM) races and in national advertising.
Sprint Nextel customers also can use either their Sprint PCS or Nextel phones to text message the word "give" to short code 24357 to make a $5 donation to the American Red Cross. The donation will be billed on the customer's wireless phone bill. Standard text-messaging rates will apply.
Boost Mobile(R), Sprint Nextel's youth lifestyle brand, also is adding a tool to its Pay-As-You-Go wireless service aimed at helping American youth provide aid to the Hurricane Katrina disaster relief effort. Boost customers may donate up to $25 from their prepaid account to the American Red Cross to help provide immediate relief and emergency supplies to the estimated 400,000 people in New Orleans who have lost their homes and are in critical need of basic care and support. Boost Mobile will match its customers' contributions up to $50,000.
Additionally, Sprint Nextel's long-standing and ongoing support of the American Red Cross will be furthered by the Nextel Invitational Charity Event that is expected to raise in excess of $750,000 for the American Red Cross this September, bringing the three-year total raised for the American Red Cross to more than $1.5 million.
As Sprint Nextel stores re-open, customers without service will be able to stop by those stores to place essential wireless calls. In addition, the company will be setting up Community Support Tents, providing food, water, ice, replacement batteries, phone cards, and service and repair assistance to the general public in affected areas. Details on store closures and locations of community support events will be posted on www.sprint.com.
Government Support
Sprint Nextel representatives continue to work closely with federal agencies and State Emergency Operations Centers in Louisiana and Mississippi to determine priority services that require restoration so necessary emergency personnel can effectively communicate. By working directly with these organizations, the restoration effort will be dramatically improved.
Sprint Nextel's Emergency Response Team (ERT) is available nationally 24/7 and provides communications capabilities and technical expertise to city, state and federal emergency workers, as well as utilities and other necessary infrastructure organizations. Public Safety officials interested in requesting ERT assistance should call the Nextel Public Safety Call Center at (888) 639-0020 or 1-254-295-2220 for GETS users. Operators are available 24/7.
About Sprint Nextel
Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business and government customers. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two robust wireless networks offering industry leading mobile data services; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and an award-winning and global Tier 1 Internet backbone. For more information, visit www.sprint.com.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
INDUSTRIES
Activate Email 
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
