A court in Delaware, USA has given permission for a legal action to proceed over Sprint's planned WiMAX joint venture with Clearwire. While the court action, initiated by Sprint affiliate operator, iPCS will now go ahead, the court decided that two iPCS subsidiaries, Horizon PCS and Bright PCS would not be allowed to join in the legal action.

iPCS is the Sprint PCS Affiliate of Sprint Nextel with the exclusive right to sell wireless mobility communications network products and services under the Sprint brand in 80 markets including markets in Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio and Tennessee.

In March, iPCS and its subsidiaries filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois against Sprint Nextel, claiming that Sprint Nextel's recently announced WiMAX transaction with Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ: CLWR) would breach the exclusivity provisions of IPCS's affiliation agreements with Sprint Nextel.

iPCS is seeking a declaratory judgment that Sprint Nextel's consummation of the recently announced Clearwire/WiMAX transaction, and its plan to compete against iPCS, will breach the iPCS agreements with Sprint Nextel. iPCS is asking the Court for a permanent injunction enjoining Sprint Nextel and those acting in concert with it from consummating the WiMAX transaction until such transaction has been modified to comply with the iPCS agreements with Sprint Nextel.

iPCS noted that it has been involved in litigation with Sprint Nextel for nearly three years about the exclusivity provisions of its affiliation agreements,.

As of March 31, 2008, iPCS's licensed territory had a total population of approximately 15.1 million residents, of which its wireless network covered approximately 12.0 million residents, and iPCS had approximately 640,600 subscribers. iPCS is headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois.

Source:cellular-news