A wireless affiliate of Sprint Nextel Corp. has pulled its request that an Illinois judge block the planned spinoff of Sprint's new broadband network.

Schaumburg, Ill.-based iPCS Inc. said Monday in a regulatory filing that it withdrew its motion for a temporary restraining order preventing Sprint's WiMax network from being combined with Kirkland, Wash.-based Clearwire Corp. The decision came after Clearwire said it didn't plan to offer high-speed wireless Internet service in iPCS's markets before July 1, 2009.

Clearwire shareholders are scheduled to vote Thursday on the merger. The new Clearwire company, which will deploy a network based on WiMax technology, will also include billions of dollars in investments from Google Inc., Intel Corp. and a group of cable companies.

IPCS filed suit against the plan this year, claiming it would violate an exclusivity agreement it has with Sprint in its territory. The company covers parts of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska.

While iPCS has now abandoned its hope for an injunction, iPCS said its original lawsuit challenging the merger will continue. Clearwire has agreed to give iPCS 60 days' notice if it plans to enter the iPCS territory before the court enters a final ruling on the lawsuit.

IPCS and Sprint are fighting a similar legal battle over Sprint's 2005 acquisition of Nextel Communications Inc. The Illinois Supreme Court last week refused to consider an appeal of a lower court's decision that the purchase violated the iPCS exclusivity agreement. The court did extend the 180-day limit for Sprint to sell Nextel assets in iPCS's territory to 360 days.

Sprint faced similar lawsuits from most of its affiliates after the Nextel acquisition and ended up buying most of those companies. It has not said whether it would consider buying iPCS.

Source: AP News