Sprint to Buy Spectrum and Customers From U.S. Cellular Sprint Nextel is making good on promises to be a deal maker in the telecommunications industry, saying on Wednesday that it was buying wireless spectrum and 585,000 customers from the U.S. Cellular Corporation for $480 million. Sprint will bulk up its service coverage as it converts to a faster data network, while U.S. Cellular will retrench and focus on markets where it is performing well.