NEWS: Sprint to outsource network operations

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/10/sprint_ericsson/>

Sprint has confirmed it will outsource the running of its US CDMA
network to Ericsson, but is keeping WiMAX to itself while admitting
that all its PDA-class devices will be able to fall back on Wi-Fi
when all else fails.

The outsourcing agreement involves transferring 6,000 staff to
Ericsson, who will take responsibility for the day-to-day running of
Sprint's CDMA, iDEN and wired networks for the next seven years - at
a cost slightly south of $5bn - while Sprint tries to migrate the
users onto its WiMAX network.

[MORE]

Bottom line is that Sprint's condition is getting increasingly
desperate.

John Navas <spamfilter1@navasgroup.com> wrote in
news:25af55lr8jbafql82cb3v87sg71crakn70@4ax.com:

> <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/10/sprint_ericsson/>
>
> Sprint has confirmed it will outsource the running of its US CDMA
> network to Ericsson, but is keeping WiMAX to itself while admitting
> that all its PDA-class devices will be able to fall back on Wi-Fi
> when all else fails.
>
> The outsourcing agreement involves transferring 6,000 staff to
> Ericsson, who will take responsibility for the day-to-day running of
> Sprint's CDMA, iDEN and wired networks for the next seven years - at
> a cost slightly south of $5bn - while Sprint tries to migrate the
> users onto its WiMAX network.
>
> [MORE]
>
> Bottom line is that Sprint's condition is getting increasingly
> desperate.
>

How does this represent desperation?

Another point- the article points to a migration to Wimax, which is being
deployed and marketed as a pure wireless data (not voice) network. If
there are no Wimax phones, how will the migration occur?

Probably should have checked facts before posting this.

John Blutarsky wrote:

> How does this represent desperation?
>
> Another point- the article points to a migration to Wimax, which is being
> deployed and marketed as a pure wireless data (not voice) network. If
> there are no Wimax phones, how will the migration occur?
>
> Probably should have checked facts before posting this.

That's the understatement of the year!

You're likely to see more outsourcing deals like this. It's much more
cost efficient to outsource this function to someone that specializes in
it than trying to do it yourself, especially for smaller carriers like
Sprint. Ericsson already does this for a lot of other carriers, though
Sprint will be the largest carrier they handle.

I wish I'd bought Sprint stock back at the beginning of the year. It's
more than doubled in value, while AT&T and Verizon have fallen by about 20%.

SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote in
news:frQ5m.13782$OF1.8418@nlpi069.nbdc.sbc.com:

> John Blutarsky wrote:
>
>> How does this represent desperation?
>>
>> Another point- the article points to a migration to Wimax, which is
>> being deployed and marketed as a pure wireless data (not voice)
>> network. If there are no Wimax phones, how will the migration occur?
>>
>> Probably should have checked facts before posting this.
>
> That's the understatement of the year!
>
> You're likely to see more outsourcing deals like this. It's much more
> cost efficient to outsource this function to someone that specializes
> in it than trying to do it yourself, especially for smaller carriers
> like Sprint. Ericsson already does this for a lot of other carriers,
> though Sprint will be the largest carrier they handle.
>
> I wish I'd bought Sprint stock back at the beginning of the year. It's
> more than doubled in value, while AT&T and Verizon have fallen by
> about 20%.
>

I'm still not convinced by them. They need to show some signs of life when
they announce 2Q numbers- not compete recovery, but a serious move in that
direction. Moving sideways (as they have) while losing money and
subscribers is not a good thing.

In article <frQ5m.13782$OF1.8418@nlpi069.nbdc.sbc.com>,
scharf.steven@geemail.com says...


> I wish I'd bought Sprint stock back at the beginning of the year. It's
> more than doubled in value, while AT&T and Verizon have fallen by about 20%.

The value was probably pretty low to begin with. They were bleeding
customers for a few years.

The question is whether they've fixed the problems that caused that. For
the year that I used them, I loved the network and the technology and
the phones, but as I've said on Usenet before, their post-merger
customer service sucked.



--
Steve Sobol, Victorville, California, USA
sjsobol@JustThe.net

Steve Sobol wrote:

> The question is whether they've fixed the problems that caused that. For
> the year that I used them, I loved the network and the technology and
> the phones, but as I've said on Usenet before, their post-merger
> customer service sucked.

Fortunately for Sprint, and some other carriers, there's a large base of
customers that seem to never leave no matter how bad things are. Either
they're unaware that things can be different elsewhere, or they don't
want to deal with switching carriers and phones.

For my mom, it took Cingular buying AT&T Wireless, and a monthly cost
increase of $20 combined with a loss of coverage (when they switched her
from TDMA to GSM), for her to finally leave. I got her to go to T-Mobile
prepaid, and got her bill down by 80%, only when I walked her through
unlocking her Nokia handset (at 80, she didn't want to learn how to use
another phone, and she didn't realize that she could get her contact
list moved to a new phone).

I had two co-workers that were on Sprint. One left for Verizon because
all of her friends and family were on Verizon (a common situation in the
San Francisco Bay Area) and she wanted free MTM to use with them.
Another left because she had never had Sprint coverage at her house in
Cupertino's Seven Springs area, and had believed that no carrier had
coverage there because that's what a carrier had told her (it wasn't true).