Sprint’s executive exodus continued this week as reports indicated that VP of network technology development and integration Iyad Tarazi has left the company.
FierceWireless reported that Sprint confirmed Tarazi’s departure and that he would be replaced by Emerino Marchetti, who is currently VP of engineering and development. Tarazi was a longtime Sprint executive having come over from Nextel Communications following Sprint’s acquisition of the company in 2005.
Tarazi’s departure follows that of other Sprint network executives, including Bob Azzi, former SVP of networks at Sprint, and former president of network operations Steve Elfman. Both reportedly left the company earlier this month.
John Saw was promoted to chief network officer, where he will be reporting directly to Sprint’s CTO Stephen Bye. Saw came to Sprint last year as part of the carrier’s acquisition of Clearwire, where Saw was CTO and managed the carrier’s build out of WiMAX services across the 2.5 GHz band. Bye came to Sprint in 2011, following a stint as VP of wireless at Cox Communications.
The move comes as Sprint has struggled through its extensive Network Vision program that will see the carrier basically replace all of its network equipment, a process that has resulted in network interruptions impacting operational results. More recently, Sprint announced its Spark program that will see the carrier tie together its extensive spectrum holdings across the 800 MHz, 1.9 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands to support higher-speed data services.
The latest executive changes come just weeks after Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son spoke at the Washington, D.C. Chamber of Commerce lampooning the United States’ current standings in providing broadband services and touting the ability for Sprint to bolster that position through its Spark program. Son claimed that Sprint would be able to provide network speeds of up to 200 megabits per second through its network, though Sprint is only touting speeds of up to 60 Mbps for the network.
Sprint recently posted challenged fourth quarter financial results, warning at that time that its operational challenges will continue through at least the first half of this year as it continues to struggle through its network upgrade program. Those struggles are expected to impact network quality with a resulting higher churn rate and loss of customers.
“During the construction phase, there is a period of disruption to our network service which will manifest itself in higher voice service drops and blocked calls,” said Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. “Voice performance is very noticeable to customers, so heightened blocks and drops contribute significantly to churn.”
Sprint’s LTE launch has been saddled with slower network speeds compared with its rivals due to having just 10 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band for support. The carrier has tried to downplay the speed reports, with Azzi last year noting that customers were receiving a solid offering on their mobile devices.
The carrier’s LTE rollout challenges were also highlighted by the relatively rapid deployment of LTE services by its smaller rival T-Mobile US, which managed to surpass Sprint’s LTE coverage despite starting its network build nearly one year after Sprint.
Hesse feted
While Sprint’s executive ranks are shuffled, CEO Dan Hesse was lauded as among the leaders on “online career community” Glassdoor’s 2014 list of the highest rated CEOs at large companies and the only from a telecommunications company. Glassdoor noted that its ranking relies on feedback from company employees offered over the past year.
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