Sprint Network Vision Moves Forward

When you hear about the battle between carriers, you tend to think of AT&T and Verizon as the ones fighting it out. Sometimes people forget about Sprint as a player in the space. Sprint has recently gotten the iPhone and can also offers unlimited data, so it is becoming more competitive. And to help with competitiveness, Sprint is undergoing some restructuring.

Sprint for the past couple of years has been running on the iDEN network. But in the interest of growing their network and improving sustainability, the company announced that it has signed agreements with Goodman Networks, Overland Contracting, Inc., Pyramid Network Services LLC, and WesTower Communications Inc. to decommission the company’s iDEN network. Under the terms of the deals, these suppliers will settle lease termination agreements, repair certain cell site compounds and remove Sprint network equipment that, in the interest of environmental protection, will be re-used or recycled. Sprint hopes to cease service of the iDEN network by June 30, 2013 and is moving well towards their goal as the company expects to shut down 9,600 iDEN sites before the end of the third quarter this year.

 “After a thorough RFP process, Sprint has selected the best suppliers to cost-effectively hit our milestones for site shutdown, enabling the company to exit from those locations at a minimum cost,” said John Harrison, vice president-Network Supplier Performance Management. “In addition, we have taken extra care in selecting these suppliers to ensure our industry-leading green standards are maintained.”

But what about customers that are currently using the iDEN network? Current users are being moved to Sprint Direct Connect services which the company unveiled last year and was the industry’s newest push-to-talk standard.

While things at Sprint are likely to be described as makeshift, the company has a multiyear plan in place and will still need to spend the next year continuing to execute effectively and efficiently.