BEHIND THE NAME
Sprint Nextel Corp. was formed in 2005 when Sprint Corp. purchased Nextel Communications. In 2008 Sprint Nextel combined its broadband business with Clearwire Corp. and became a 51 percent owner of the new Clearwire Corp. The company’s other owners are the former Clearwire Corp., Intel Corp., Comcast Corp., Google Inc. and Bright House Networks.

Clearwire had 641,000 mobile broadband subscribers as of the fourth quarter 2009. Sprint reported 48.1 million wireless subscribers for the same period.

The lobbying total for Clearwire and the former Clearwire Corp. is $842,000 – this figure is not included in Sprint Nextel’s total.

Lobbying expenditures between 1999 and 2009 for Sprint and Nextel total at least $60.4 million.

Sources: Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (broadband subscribers); lobbying disclosure forms with the Senate Office of Public Records (lobbying data); SEC filings (Sprint wireless subscribers and Clearwire mobile broadband subscribers).

Graphic research by Mia Steinle, Investigative Reporting Workshop