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Sprint
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politics
great moments in customer service
Sprint customer gets biblical over charges
Saying he was screwed out of $56,000, Allen Harkleroad of Web design and development firm GMP Services in Stonesboro, Georgia started website Sprint Sucks. It's an absolutely mesmerizing look into the incredibly energetic businessman's obsession. Harkleroad registered the domain sprint-really-sucks.com on May 12, and has already posted well over 5,000 words describing the company's bad service and overcharges in detail. More »
Sprint charging 300 percent premium on T1 lines
Troubled telco Sprint charged a customer nearly $2,000 for a T1 line that only cost them $500 to provide, and then didn't even deliver the promised three megabits of bandwidth, inspiring GigaOm's Stacey Higginbotham to coin the phrase "Three Megabit Monte." That's probably a disservice to the classic street scam. [GigaOm] (Photo by Nelson Minar)
rumormonger
Helio-Virgin deal might involve multibillion-dollar Sprint investment
Helio backer SK Telecom, the Korean wireless giant, is in negotiations to purchase Virgin Mobile USA. The plan: combine the two properties and then invest enough in Sprint Nextel to get all three companies working together. Sprint already runs the network over which Helio and Virgin run their cell-phone services. Complicating the deal: T-Mobile's rumored interest in buying Sprint. "Part of something is better than all of nothing," a source close to Helio tells us. More »
wireless
How Google yanked AT&T's chain
Negotiations to reform Clearwire, Craig McCaw's wireless-broadband startup, as a consortium backed by Google, Sprint, Comcast and others began as far back as January of this year. By mid-March the consortium had an outline of a deal that made Google the preferred software developer on the WiMax network. Today the consortium, operating under the Clearwire name, is expected to disclose that they are investing $3.2 billion in a nationwide WiMax network, which will eventually be able to deliver a 5-Mbps connection to cellphones and laptops. But what else was Google doing back in January? More »
acquisitions
Sprint, Clearwire work seven-way deal to create new wireless-broadband startup worth $12 billion
Clearwire, the wireless data company started by Seattle-area cell-phone billionaire Craig McCaw, will be recontsituted as a new company valued at $12 billion backed by primarily by Sprint, but also by cable providers Time Warner, Comcast and Bright House, chipmaker Intel and Web search behemoth Google. McCaw will continue as chairman of the board at Clearwire and Ben Wolff as CEO. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse agreed to give control to the pair as part of the deal, to ease concerns that Sprint's core wireless business would conflict as the new company's services began to compete for voice and data customers. Sprint has encountered numerous problems with deploying Intel-developed WiMax, and there's still the issue of whether the company will sell Nextel after a $35 billion acquisition in 2005 went south.
wireless
$5 billion WiMax network no-shows at CTIA
Gizmodo's gearheads got their grabby hands on hot new WiMax-ready gadgets at this week's supersized Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association trade convention in Vegas. WiMax is a sort of turbo Wi-Fi that promises cable modem speeds through thin air. But what will Nokia's N810 connect to? Washington Post financial reporter Yuki Noguchi observed a big black hole on the stage at which the WiMax Singularity had been expected to appear today. It was like Steve Jobs walking on stage at Macworld, reaching into his pocket, and not pulling out an iPhone. I've 100-worded her report. More »
price war
Sprint rolls out super-unlimited-everything-plan for $99
The great wireless price war of 2008 continues. The latest salvo from Sprint: A new plan, called Simply Everything, offers unlimited voice, data, SMS, email, Web, music, TV, and Nextel's push-to-talk feature — for $99. The other providers charge between $140 and $150 a month for all that stuff. An AT&T spokesman told us "we will review Sprint's offer against what our customers have told us they want and we will continue to evaluate the marketplace as we always do." Hopefully that means I can hook AT&T's version of this bad boy up with my iPhone by the end of the week — but I'm not holding my breath. (Photo by AP/Robert F. Bukaty)
dan hesse
New Sprint CEO captain of industry, master of obvious
Freshly installed Sprint CEO Dan Hesse wants to make your experience as a Sprint Nextel customer a better one. Will it work? Probably not, but at least Hesse has proven he can stay tediously on message. Count the number of times he says "customer service"! More »
Intel is reviving ClearWire andSprint's failed WiMax partnership with a much-needed $2 billion investment. Intel has always been WiMax's biggest proponent, spending a ton of money on development and including the technology in its next laptop chip design. This is on top of the $5 billion that Sprint has promised to invest in WiMax over the next three years. [Gizmodo]
wireless
AT&T, Verizon join Sprint in offering unlimited voice plans
The great cell-phone price war of 2008 has begun. Almost 2 weeks ago, Sprint introduced a $119 unlimited voice plan in four markets (including San Francisco). Today, both Verizon and AT&T have rolled out $99 all-you-can-talk voice plans nationally, with Verizon introducing a less-than-spectacular new EVDO data plan. More »
Sprint Nextel has revived serious discussions with startup Clearwire to form a joint venture that would bring in funding from the likes of Intel, Google and Best Buy to build a high-speed wireless network using WiMax technology. [WSJ]
Sprint Nextel plans to lay off several thousand employees, as newly installed CEO Dan Hesse seeks to show investors a new commitment to efficiency and cost discipline at the nation's No. 3 wireless carrier. Sprint, which let 5,000 workers go last year, has about 60,000 employees. [WSJ]
rumormonger
Our sources tell us that Apple may include WiMax, the high-speed, long-range wireless broadband technology, in an ultraportable 13" notebook computer, and possibly across the entire MacBook Pro line. Just part of the rumor mill flying in preparation for Steve Jobs's Macworld keynote next week in San Francisco, of course, but our source gives it a "60 percent chance." AppleInsider has pictures of Apple's banners inside the Moscone center with "There's something in the air" as a slogan. If true, this could be a risky move for Apple.
More »
Can Apple save WiMax?
Our sources tell us that Apple may include WiMax, the high-speed, long-range wireless broadband technology, in an ultraportable 13" notebook computer, and possibly across the entire MacBook Pro line. Just part of the rumor mill flying in preparation for Steve Jobs's Macworld keynote next week in San Francisco, of course, but our source gives it a "60 percent chance." AppleInsider has pictures of Apple's banners inside the Moscone center with "There's something in the air" as a slogan. If true, this could be a risky move for Apple.
More »
Comcast announced today that it has surpassed Embarq, Sprint's former local-phone business, to become the country's fourth largest residential phone provider. Comcast currently has 4.1 million VOIP customers, all signed up in the past 30 months. [Epicenter]
Sprint Nextel has a new CEO to replace Gary Forsee, who exited the company in October. Dan Hesse, former CEO of Embarq, a local phone company that Sprint spun out last year, will take the post. Hesse previously worked 23 years at AT&T, including a stint running AT&T Wireless. [WSJ]
Vonage isn't just facing service issues today. It's also been revealed that Nortel countersued the Internet telephone provider over a patent dispute. That makes four big telephone companies suing Vonage for patent infringement: AT&T, Sprint Nextel, Verizon, and now Nortel. The good news: At this rate, Vonage is running out of companies to get sued by. [News.com]
Sprint Nextel rejected an offer by South Korea's SK Telecom and private-equity firm Providence Equity Partners to invest $5 billion in the company and install former chairman Tim Donahue as chief executive. [WSJ]
