Kansas regulators will no longer seek to block Sprint Nextel Corp.’s plans to spin off its local telephone unit.

Sprint Nextel is spinning off its local telephone division into a new company, to be called Embarq. Sprint Nextel pledged that the new company will continue to invest in its high-speed Internet network and would not pass on direct costs of the separation to Kansas customers.

The spinoff requires the approval of regulators in 14 of the 18 states that the local unit serves.