Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on those sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
19 Sprints and counting?
As part of a massive overhaul of the country’s No. 4carrier, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure announced plans to restructure the company, which will see the company split into four regional offices and include job cuts. Bloomberg obtained a memo from Claure to Sprint employees announcing the layoffs. “For our colleagues who will be leaving, we will be sorry to see them go,” Claure said in the memo. “These are actions that we must take so that we can ensure the strength and long-term success of our company, and save thousands of other jobs.” The new decentralized approach is part of Claure’s effort to reverse a seven-year streak of subscriber losses and better serve the carrier’s customers in 19 major U.S. markets. The four new regions will have a president who will report directly to Claure. Each of the 19 key markets will also have a president. The plan also includes a more united sales approach, which will target Sprint’s entire customer base as opposed to its current strategy of dividing the sales team into separate channels. “We are going to go from a centralized model that we have today to a completely local decentralized model,” Claure said last week in an interview. “You’ll see 19 Sprints. We are going to go fight in the local markets rather than one Sprint fighting from Overland Park.” … Read more
Verizon prepares to offer Wi-Fi calling
Verizon Wireless is set to join the other U.S. carriers in offering Wi-Fi calling. The company has secured a temporary Federal Communications Commission exemption from rules requiring voice over Wi-Fi to accommodate hearing- and speech-impaired users. AT&T Mobility requested and received a similar waiver before launching its service. The nation’s largest wireless carrier follows AT&T Mobility, Sprint and T-Mobile US into Wi-Fi calling, although each carrier’s offering is unique. AT&T Mobility currently supports only the recent versions of Apple’s iPhone with Wi-Fi calling (iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6s and 6s Plus), while Sprint and T-Mobile US offer the service on some Android phones as well. Voice calls over IP networks have been available for years through services like Skype, but carrier-supported Wi-Fi calling integrates the service so that calls and messages can be seen alongside those made over the cellular network. Call transfers from cellular to Wi-Fi are at times difficult, but will become easier as carriers roll out voice over LTE, which is also IP-based. AT&T Mobility said that handoffs between its VoLTE network and Wi-Fi are working well so far. … Read more
5G talk at LTE North America
DALLAS – For as much as the wireless industry is abuzz over “5G,” a few things stood out in presentations at LTE North America: LTE is still a relatively young technology with a long life ahead of it, and as quickly as it has been adopted, it has quite a way to go before it has global ubiquity. Chris Pearson, president of 4G Americas, presented numbers showing that nearly 1 billion LTE subscribers and around 460 LTE networks will have been established by the end of this year, with the number of subscribers expected to reach around 3.6 billion by the end of 2020. During the same year that 5G is expected to emerge in commercial deployments, LTE coverage is expected to reach about 70% of the world’s population. Pearson noted that LTE still has a number of features that are emerging, which will improve efficiency and speed for existing use cases ranging from Voice over LTE to carrier aggregation to LTE Broadcast and the ability to leverage LTE in unlicensed spectrum. The industry, he said, “does not have to wait for 5G for opportunity or to solve problems.” … Read more
Sprint courts customers by offering to slash their cellular bills
Sprint is bringing back a promotion from the past, announcing today that customers coming to the carrier from Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility or T-Mobile US will be offered a comparable rate plan at half the price they are currently paying. The promotion, which begins Nov. 20 and runs through Jan. 7, requires customers to port their number from one of the carrier’s nationwide rivals with the promise of a 50% savings on their monthly bill. Sprint notes the offer is valid for “most plans” with the discounted plan available through Jan. 8, 2018. The 50% discount also applies to per-device access fees on data buckets. For Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility customers looking to make the switch, Sprint is willing to slash prices on plans with data buckets up to 25 gigabytes. T-Mobile US customers with “unlimited” data plans are also not eligible for Sprint’s promotion. Also, any service outside of voice calling, text messaging and traditional data usage like rollover data, streaming content or cloud services are not included. … Read more
Sprint deploys LTE Advanced to more markets
Sprint said its ongoing network enhancements are now available in 77 “major” markets across the country and will be marketed under the LTE Plus moniker. Sprint CTO John Saw took to the carrier’s blog to tout the service expansion and new name, which encompasses some of the technology improvements from the LTE-Advanced standard. Those improvements include carrier aggregation of Sprint’s 800 MHz, 1.9 GHz and 2.5 GHz spectrum bands, as well as antenna beamforming designed to take advantage of Sprint’s eight transmit, eight receive LTE radios. Saw stated the performance improvements are most visible at the cell edge and indoors. “Simply stated, while our competitors are sending LTE data meant for a specific customer to everyone in a sector, we are able to transmit more directive beams to exactly where our customers are located,” Saw explained, noting the carrier’s network was able to produce peak speeds in excess of 100 megabits per second. … Read more
Phoenix Tower buys sites from T-Mobile US
Following up on an August contract announcement, Phoenix Tower International has finalized an acquisition of ownership/management of 600 tower sites from carrier T-Mobile US. Phoenix Tower owns and operates towers in the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean. The company is based in Boca Raton, Fla. In August, when the pending deal was first made public, Phoenix Tower CEO Dagan T. Kasavana said: “We are incredibly excited to transact with T-Mobile and believe these locations are well situated for additional lease-up opportunities as the wireless operators continue to expand and improve their networks. The PTI management team has significant experience operating and leasing tower sites in the United States and is thrilled to have a significant portfolio of high-quality sites in the United States to offer to our customers. Furthermore, this transaction represents another milestone in Phoenix Tower’s expansion and allows us to service our customers’ strategic needs across the Americas.” … Read more
Vodafone set to invest $1.9 billion in India
Vodafone is betting big on the Indian telecommunications market. In a meeting with Indian Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modiin in London, Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao pledged to invest nearly $2 billion for capacity augmentation and other “Digital India” initiatives. “At Vodafone, we are enthused with the PM’s vision for ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India.’ Vodafone India serves over 188 million citizens, of which almost 100 million are from rural areas,” Colao said. “As the co-creator of the telecom ecosystem, a catalyst of the telecom revolution in India and being committed for the long term, we are ideally poised to partner the Government of India in fulfilling these important initiatives. We are pleased to announce our enhanced commitment to India through this series of significant further investments.” In addition to the capacity expansion, the money is targeted to build high-end technology and customer service centers to help bring new skills to India’s already rich talent pool.Vodafone plans to increase its staff to around 15,000 employees in the next two years. The British telecom operator is India’s second-largest carrier and is the largest foreign direct investor in the country. Vodafone India has the largest customer base of all of the subsidiaries in Vodafone Group. It also has the largest volume of data traffic and is the group’s third-largest revenue producer. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
