Sprint reaches out to cable TV operators
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Sprint is in talks with a number of cable television operators to offer shared mobile phone services, but said key details had yet to be agreed.
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* Sprint&#39;s strong wireless Internet service and Nextel&#39;s walkie- talkie feature popular among mobile professionals would be a competitive combination.
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Sprint said on Friday it has made a deal that will let it nearly double the number of places it offers short-range wireless Internet connections.
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New Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse has lots of choices as he&#160;takes over the ailing mobile carrier&#160;and looks for problems to start solving.Sprint, the third-biggest wireless operator in the U.S., is&#160;losing subscribers as it keeps working through the merger of Sprint and Nextel, which occurred in 2005. On Tuesday,&#160;Sprint announced Hesse is taking over immediately for Gary Forsee, who was forced out by the company&#39;s board in October. Hesse, 54, previously led Embarq, the local wireless carrier Sprint spun off as part of the Nextel deal.Sprint needs to both distinguish itself from competitors and get its own house in order, according to mobile industry analysts.&quot;They couldn&#39;t go on without someone who&#39;s willing to set a direction,&quot; said Avi Greengart of Current Analysis. Sprint could try to compete with Verizon Wireless and AT&amp;T Wireless on price, or with more flexible terms of service, or bring out more innovative devices, but it&#39;s failed so far to choose, according to Greengart.&quot;Their brand right now doesn&#39;t stand for anything,&quot; he said.One thing the Sprint name has been associated with recently is disappointing customer service. Reporting on the quarter ended Sept. 30, the company blamed accelerating customer &quot;churn&quot; to other carriers in part on longer help calls and waits for those calls. The introduction of simplified bills, expected to continue until the middle of 2008, boosted the number of those calls, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Sprint also noted new handsets at rival carriers, clearly a reference to AT&amp;T&#39;s Apple iPhone.Meanwhile, thanks to about 700,000 subscribers quitting the aging Nextel network, Sprint&#39;s subscriber base as a whole declined by a net 337,000 in the quarter. The carrier said it had about 54 million subscribers on Sept. 30.What could most set Sprint apart is also its biggest gamble, the WiMax wireless broadband network it plans to build across the U.S. at an estimated cost of US$5 billion. Though the WiMax network is likely to be in place first, set to reach 100 million people by the end of 2008, Sprint&#39;s main rivals plan to have their own high-speed data offerings using a similar technology, LTE (Long-Term Evolution). And WiMax won&#39;t fix Sprint&#39;s long-overdue need to harmonize its cellular operations, currently split between CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and Nextel&#39;s older iDEN technology, Greengart said.If it goes ahead with WiMax -- interim CEO Paul Saleh said this month the business might be spun off -- Sprint will have to convince skeptical investors it&#39;s making the right move, said Yankee Group&#39;s Phil Marshall. It will also need to find a way for WiMax to truly complement the cellular business, Marshall said. So far, Sprint has painted WiMax as a mobile service distinguished from its conventional voice offerings by the promise of an any-application, any-device model. A better plan would be to push WiMax as an alternative to wired broadband that&#39;s bundled with Sprint&#39;s cellular service, Marshall said.However, in the short term, Hesse just needs to get the company to run its existing businesses better, Marshall said. Cleaning up customer service would be one key move, he added. Judging from Hesse&#39;s previous performance -- he once headed AT&amp;T Wireless -- the new CEO is qualified to do this, according to Marshall.&quot;He&#39;s very pragmatic and systematic in his management style,&quot; Marshall said.&#160;
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SBC Communications today became the second major local phone carrier to unveil plans to offer cable-like television services. Earlier, the company said it agreed to use new technology by Microsoft for delivering
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Sprint Corp. announced a multiyear agreement with the countryâs eighth-largest cable operator Mediacom Communications Corp., enabling Mediacom to provide telephony services in nearly all of its markets currently covering 2.7 million homes in 23 states.
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Sprint is considering options such as spinning off its WiMAX business and taking on partners in an effort fimd its nationwide wireless broadband network.
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Comcast Corp.  has become the first U.S. cable operator to take on telecommunications providers in the cell phone market, having begun marketing the service to consumers in Boston.
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By Kristin McAllister Staff Writer  Wireless providers AT&T Inc. and Sprint Tuesday announced separate offerings that brings a convergence of voice mail, e-mail and video service, including cable television to their subscribers' cell phones.
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Time Warner Cable will offer wireless telephone service through Sprint Corp. under a tentative deal announced Wednesday by the two companies.
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Two months ago, Fred Poteet walked into a Sprint store to resolve some problems with his cellphone. When he walked out, he had a new wireless contract, with Cox Communications Inc., his cable television operator.
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Sprint Nextel Corp , said on  Wednesday it would kick off a new advertising campaign as the  third biggest U.S. wireless service looks to improve the weak  growth of recent quarters.
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Customers of Sprint Corp. and SBC Communications Inc. will be able to use both companies&#39; wireless Internet connections with less hassle under a reciprocal deal announced Friday.
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&#39;Tis the season. It&#39;s been a busy time for Sprint (nyse: FON - news - people ) Chairman and Chief Executive Gary Forsee, and it&#39;s not over yet.
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Sprint Corp., the No. 4 US mobile- phone company, said its customers will get access to 2,300 public wireless Internet connections run by SBC Communications Inc.
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Sprint said today that it may begin to unlock its cell phones for use on other carrier networks.
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Sprint Nextel Corp , said on Wednesday it would kick off a new advertising campaign as the third biggest U.S. wireless service looks to improve the weak growth of recent quarters.