Sprint said Wednesday it had reached an agreement with Northern PCS of Minnesota to acquire the company for $312.5 million in a continuing effort to appease regional affiliates that objected to its merger with Nextel in 2005. The company serves about 167,000 customers across Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Iowa, and the deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

The Northern PCS deal follows similar deals with various other providers. Sprint paid $3.4 billion for its largest affiliate Alamosa Holdings, as well $1.3 billion for UbiquiTel, a combined $2 billion for US Unwired, IWO Holdings, Enterprise PCS and Gulf Coast Wireless, and $6.5 billion for Nextel partner Nextel Partners, which served rural areas with Nextel's "push-to-talk" technology.