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July 23, 2014

Sprint Eyes 'Spark' LTE-A Deployment with Help from Netcracker

Sprint has agreed to a multi-year agreement that will expand its use of NetCracker’s OSS solutions to support its Sprint Spark enhanced LTE rollout.

“NetCracker has played a key role in helping Sprint drive its leading-edge network and service innovations into the highly competitive U.S. mobile market,” said Eddie VanCompernolle, vice president of IT at Sprint. “We rely on NetCracker’s next-generation OSS solutions to accelerate the pace at which we bring new technology and applications to our customers.”

Sprint has been utilizing NetCracker’s resource inventory, order management and discovery and reconciliation solutions to support its mobile broadband deployment to date; now, it will use the integrated solutions to accelerate the Sprint Spark network rollout.

Sprint Spark is based on the LTE-Advanced standard, and claims peak wireless speeds of 50 to 60Mbps—though in practice it will be closer to 6 to 15Mbps. It will roll out to cover 100 million Americans and the company’s 55 million customers by the end of the year.

It’s one of many carriers that have LTE-A on the roadmap. 4G Americas said that as of July 1, there are 13 operators that have deployed LTE-A in 11 countries worldwide.  It estimates that there will be 40 by the end of the year.

Sprint will be a first mover in the U.S., along with AT&T, which has already started deployments. Verizon’s XLTE brand is an enhancement, because it uses AWS spectrum to improve propagation characteristics and capacity, but is not true LTE-A.

“We are excited to be part of the new Sprint Spark initiative, which will bring some of the most advanced mobile technology in the world to more than 100 million Americans,” said Sylvain Seignour, vice president of the Americas at NetCracker. “Our consistent success in delivering solutions and supporting aggressive network rollouts for Sprint provides a strong example of how NetCracker is helping mobile operators gain competitive advantages in diverse markets around the globe.”




Edited by Maurice Nagle


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