SPRINT-NEXTEL
DESCRIPTION                                                                        
Running to keep up with an always-changing telecom race, Sprint Nextel combines the best of two powerhouse wireless companies. The combination of #3 US wireless carrier Sprint with #5 Nextel Communications has created a wireless giant that aspires to take on the wireless units of bounding former Baby Bells Verizon (and Verizon Wireless) and AT&T Inc. (and AT&T Mobility, formerly Cingular). Sprint Nextel operates a nationwide digital wireless network with about 53 million subscribers. The #1 non-Bell local phone company in the US, Sprint Nextel has spun off its local wireline operations, known as Embarq, to focus on the future of wireless -- wireless broadband.

Sprint Nextel, created in 2005 in a cash and stock deal valued at $35 billion, puts the wireless carrier behind only AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless in number of subscribers.

CISCO SYSTEMS
DESCRIPTION
The ruler of routers, the sultan of switches, Cisco Systems continues to dominate the market for equipment used to link networks and power the Internet. The company's bread and butter products are routers and switches; Cisco's switch line includes equipment based on Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and ATM technologies. Other products include remote access servers, IP telephony equipment used to transmit data and voice communications over the same network, optical networking components, and network service and security systems. It sells its products primarily to large enterprises and telecommunications service providers, but it also has products designed for small businesses and consumers.

Cisco has used acquisitions -- more than 100 since 1993 -- to broaden its product lines and secure engineering talent in the highly competitive networking sector.