Verizon sues Sprint for $10 million in “interconnection fees”

It’s refreshing to see that huge corporations dealing with multiple millions (if not billions) of dollars in revenue can fall behind on their bills. It makes me feel better about my late cable bill.

Verizon Wireless has apparently exhausted all other means of trying to get Sprint to make good on the $10 million that is allegedly owed to Verizon for “interconnection fees.” Says Verizon, “[We have] repeatedly attempted to resolve this dispute short of litigation. Yet these attempts, made over many months and through both written and personal communications, have been fruitless. Accordingly, Verizon has been forced to seek relief from this court.”

Interestingly, Sprint stated that they aren’t surprised that Verizon filed the suit. The two-year statute of limitations is running out for Verizon, and the legal suit is a way to keep the matter within the bounds of the legal system. Sprint is confident that they’ll be able to settle the suit without further legal action. And, ironically, Sprint has lobbied the FCC to make sure that AT&T stays true to its word that it would abide by interconnection conditions that were required before AT&T’s merger with BellSouth was approved in 2006.

For Sprint’s sake, let’s hope that the $10 million (or whatever the two companies negotiate as an acceptable pay-off amount) that Sprint pays to Verizon won’t have any detrimental effect of the XOHM network launch. Sprint will be hard-pressed to transfer that much liquid in the future if it doesn’t make XOHM work soon.

[Via: RCRNews]