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Sprint Nextel Files New Lawsuit to Halt Fraudulent Pursuit of Confidential Customer Information

RESTON, Va. 01/30/2006 -- Continuing its fight against the sale of confidential call records and information, Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against All Star Investigations Inc. ("ASI"), a company believed to own and/or operate web sites including www.onlinePI.com, www.allstarinvestigations.com, www.detectivesusa.com, www.miamiprotection.com and www.privatedetectivesusa.com. These sites fraudulently obtain and sell wireless customer call detail records. Sprint Nextel states in its complaint filed in Dade County, Florida that ASI unlawfully obtains customers' wireless phone records through flagrant misrepresentation and deceitful practices.
Sprint Nextel's latest legal effort aimed at protecting customer privacy immediately follows its lawsuit filed against First Source Information Specialists Inc., parent company of www.locatecell.com, www.datafind.org, and others, announced on Jan. 27. Similar to the earlier suit, Sprint Nextel has requested both temporary and permanent injunctions against ASI.

"The schemes perpetrated by these online data brokers are intolerable and our intent is to put an end to these practices," said Kent Nakamura, vice president for telecom management and chief privacy officer for Sprint Nextel. "Ensuring the highest quality customer service is at the very core of our business. These online data brokers attempt to manipulate our customer service resources and detract from service provided to legitimate customers."

Sprint Nextel is continuing a full-scale investigation of all entities that access, or attempt to access customer data without permission. Customer service agents have been informed of the online data brokers' tactics, and are trained to follow authentication procedures when responding to customer inquiries. Sprint Nextel's security practices were praised in 2005 when the company was recognized for the "Best Practice in Security for Governance" by the Aberdeen Group.

Sprint Nextel continues to encourage its customers to take proactive measures to protect themselves. In particular, Sprint Nextel recommends that customers regularly change passwords used to access account information on the Sprint.com web site or when calling customer care, and select unique passwords to access voicemail messages on Sprint phones. For additional customer privacy tips, please go to www.sprint.com/privacy.

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 walkie-talkie capabilities; and an award-winning and global Tier 1 Internet backbone. For more information, visit www.sprint.com/mr.

Source: Sprint Nextel

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