Monday, November 5, 2007
Google and Sprint
We might know by the end of the day what the relationships are, but Sprint Nextel's fate hangs on just a couple things right now. It has to fix its customer service problems and has hired 4,500 people to get that done. Assuming that stops being a problem, it has to decide what to do about protecting its base business while dealing with its WiMAX network. Right now Sprint runs two separate physical networks and WiMAX makes three. Then there are the logical networks for voice and data. Plus back office systems that are in the process of unification, but not all there yet.
More immediately, if it can get a deal with Google, and push the device really hard, it has a chance to stop the excessive customer churn that prevents it from dealing with the WiMAX issue effectively. Google devices might help Sprint with churn, giving Sprint time to repair its customer service reputation and plot a reasonable future for WiMAX.
Most of the churn seems to come from the Nextel side of the house in any case. Is it so crazy to consider divesting Nextel and proceeding with WiMAX?
Labels:
churn,
Google,
mobile WiMAX,
Sprint
Gary Kim has been a digital infra analyst and journalist for more than 30 years, covering the business impact of technology, pre- and post-internet. He sees a similar evolution coming with AI. General-purpose technologies do not come along very often, but when they do, they change life, economies and industries.
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1 comment:
As a 9 year employee that is no longer with Sprint, I can tell you that it is a FACT that the majority of the churn comes from the Nextel side. Nextel was purchased for one reason only, to get Nextel's lucrative business customers. Sprint's greed in doing so, blinded them to the network issues Nextel was having. Those network issues and Sprint's attempt to sweep them under the carpet is the reason for churn.
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