Sprint lays off 330 techs, shutters 55 stores as part of broader cuts

(Credit:CNET)

Sprint recently cut a significant chunk of its staff dedicated to repairing and refurbishing phones and shut down its slower-performing stores, part of a broader effort to reduce the company's costs in the face of continued financial struggles.

The Overland Park, Kan., wireless carrier laid off 330 technical consultants, closing 150 service and repair centers across the country, a Sprint representative confirmed to CNET. It also shut down 55 of its worst-performing retail stores. The moves were part of a larger plan for layoffs and cuts that was announced in January.

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Sprint is attempting to streamline itself and return to profitability now that it is under the ownership of Japanese carrier SoftBank. The company, while narrowing its loss from a year ago, was still in the red by $1.62 billion in the fourth quarter amid declining revenue. In January, the company warned it would cut jobs in areas including customer care centers and less-profitable retail stores, according to the Kansas City Star. Earlier this week Sprint said that it is cutting about 1,550 customer service jobs.

In total, Sprint previously had 2,000 to 2,500 technical consultants across the country, according to Sprint representative Mark Bonavia.

Presumably, the lack of so many technical consultants would be a hindrance to Sprint and its ability to serve customers with damaged phones. But Bonavia said the cuts were designed with minimal disturbance to the customer.

While not every store will be able to service a phone, customers will be referred to a sister store that's within a 45-minute drive.

"We wanted to drive traffic to service and repair centers that were strong, and close ones that didn't operate as well," Bonavia said.

The company is cutting operational costs even as it continues to pour money into upgrading and overhauling its network, adding 4G LTE and replacing its existing 3G network for better performance. Sprint executives refer to it as the "pardon our dust" period as customers endure the sometimes painful experience of the upgrade.

Sprint is working through the upgrade process and pushing its "Framily" friends and family group plan as an incentive to sign up with the carrier.

Topics: Corporate and legal Tags: layoffs, Sprint, tech

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Sprint is shuttering stores and laying off repair techs to help cut its losses

Sprint isn't content to keep writing its financial statements in red ink. To that end, the company is shuttering 150 service and repair centers, 55 of its lowest performing retail stores and laying off some 330 repair techs. A handful of call centers have been closed, too. While these might seem troubling, the outfit's Mark Bonavia tells CNET that the pre-planned cuts were made with the idea of "minimal disturbance" to the customer in mind. What does that even mean? Well, if a local store can't service your phone, you'll be referred to a sister location that's within a 45-minute drive. This likely isn't a perfect situation for everyone, but hey, Softbank needs to free up money for that T-Mobile acquisition somehow.

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Source: CNET

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Sprint gets the Galaxy S5 and Gear smartwatches April 11th, pre-orders go live today

Sprint's getting the Galaxy S5, too. And like fellow underdog T-Mobile, the carrier plans to offer Samsung's flagship handset for no dinero upfront on its Easy Pay plan. Which means, you still have to pay, but just in 24 monthly increments. Those pre-orders begin today for folks visiting Sprint's retail stores -- that is if you can still find one that isn't shuttered -- and begin shipping on April 11th. And to sweeten the pot a little for those that aren't entirely sold on the GS5, Sprint's even tossing in zippy 4G LTE for subs that live in Spark markets, as well as a "free" Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 for qualifying Framily (ugh, that word!) members. Though note you'll have to open a separate two-year agreement to get it.

But there's even more Samsung gadgetry on the way. On the same day the GS5 becomes available, Sprint will also add Samsung's new line of Gear smartwatches -- the Gear 2/Gear 2 Neo and Gear Fit -- to its portfolio. As a relatively low-end impulse buy, you'll be able to get the Neo and Fit for $200, while the more "luxe" Gear 2 will go for $300.

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Sprint launches Sprint Prepaid with a new line-up of rates

Even though Sprint owns well known prepaid brands Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA, the nation’s third largest carrier has launched a self-branded prepaid option called Sprint Prepaid.  Sprint Prepaid is obviously aimed at those that prefer to pay for service upfront, do not like contracts, and desire to contain costs.

With the new brand comes some new rate plans. Sprint Prepaid currently supports four devices, the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini ($349.99), Samsung Galaxy S3 ($299.99), the Motorola Moto G ($99.99), and the Apple iPhone 4S ($199.99, pre-owned). For the gadget geek, these will not be very appealing options, but for anyone else, these price points coupled with Sprint Prepaid’s rates will be interested.

There are two choices for smartphone rate plans with Sprint Prepaid. The

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AT&T CFO “doesn't think” that the Sprint and T-Mobile merger is possible

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Samsung Galaxy S5 variants for Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile score FCC approvals

Earlier today we told you that AT&T’s version of Samsung’s Galaxy S5 (model number SM-G900A) was approved by the FCC. It turns out that the SM-G900A didn’t visit the agency alone, as three other Galaxy S5 variants passed the FCC hurdle today: SM-G900V (for Verizon), SM-G900P (for Sprint), and SM-G900T (for T-Mobile).

Sure enough, we already knew that all major US mobile carriers were getting ready to launch the Samsung Galaxy S5. All four will most likely release it on April 11 - that’s the worldwide launch date announced by Samsung. The new smartphone will also be available at MetroPCS, US Cellular, and Sprint’s pre-paid brands (Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile).

Yesterday we reported that 300,000 customers have already pre-registered their interest for T-Mobile’s Samsung Galaxy S5. We’re assuming that interest is high at other carriers, too. But we’ll see what happens once the new smartphone is released.

We haven’t heard anything regarding the price of the Galaxy S5 for the US market. However, we can tell you that pre-order prices in Europe range from

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LG G Flex coming to the US on AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint

LG G Flex coming to the US on AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint - GSMArena.com news#side-left {width: 133px;}#side-right {width: 160px;float: left;text-align: right;} GSMArena.com Home News Reviews BlogTools Compare Glossary FAQ Contact us Tip us Facebook TwitterGoogle+ RSSLog in

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NewsLG G Flex coming to the US on AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint06 January, 2014 | Comments (7) | Post your comment

Tags: LG, Android, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, CES 2014

The LG G Flex is certainly an attention-grabbing device but US users couldn�t get it � until now. LG has partnered with three US carriers to bring the unique phablet to a new market.

The three carriers are AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint and they'll be releasing the G Flex some time in Q1. The Vice President of Sprint, David Owens, came on stage to share that he's been using the phablet recently and said it drew tons of attention.

Unfortunately, Owens forgot to mention the price of the LG G Flex, saying only that it will support Sprint's LTE Network, Spark, offering no more details about the launch.

Now we're waiting for the three carriers to announce the pre-order. For now, you can just sign up to be notified for updates.

The rest of LG's event focused on TVs and home appliances, you can watch a replay of the event here.

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LG G Flex coming to the US on AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint - reader commentsAnonymousTo ransxu: it's flattened TOO, not TO.

Reply2014-01-07 05:154$sfransxuit can be flattened to... so technically its a bit flexible...

Reply2014-01-06 22:17t78ddesertfox6666LoL You're right sir :)

Reply2014-01-06 18:560xcpRead all commentsPost your commentTotal reader comments: 7
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Sprint Wants To Revive Nextel As A Business Brand, Merge Boost + Virgin Mobile Into ‘Sprint Freedom’

It was only six months ago that Sprint decommissioned and shut down the Nextel iDEN push-to-talk network, and while the carrier has no plans to bring that legacy service back, the brand is another story.

According to a source close to the company, Sprint wants to introduce Nextel again — as a brand for business services. The source tells TechCrunch that this is part of a larger branding overhaul coming in Q1 in which Sprint plans to launch a new prepaid brand called “Sprint Freedom” — merging Boost and Virgin Mobile.

Sprint declined to comment for this story, but if the information from the source is accurate, the moves point to Sprint raising its game targeting businesses (particularly smaller and medium businesses) as well as streamlining its patchwork of services.

It also fits with the idea of Sprint – now majority-owned by Japan’s SoftBank – marching on in consolidation mode, shoring up to present a more competitive face against the likes of AT&T and Verizon. Most recently, Sprint has been reportedly preparing an offer for T-Mobile USA, its latest move after acquiring Clear and buying a portion of U.S. Cellular earlier this year.

The Nextel service, our source says, will be part of a bigger push to court business customers. That makes some sense: Nextel’s existing business subscriber base, and brand recognition with that segment, were seen as some of the main reasons behind Sprint’s $35 billion acquisition of the company in the first place.

The new Nextel business, says the source, will be underpinned by more service streamlining: it will be a “premium” offering consisting of the 4G fixed and mobile broadband services that were originally the Clear business. The Nextel name, our source says, will go “on top of everything that was Clear and then target businesses.”

Along with previously-Clear services, there will also be more devices introduced, specifically around Sprint Spark — the tri-band LTE service debuted earlier this year that gives users faster speeds and more reliable connectivity.

Introduced with smartphones from HTC (the One max), LG (G2) and Samsung (Galaxy Mega and Samsung Galaxy S4 mini), Sprint Spark will be extended with two hotspots and three tablets as part of the offering.

And with that, some changes also around pricing, apparently. “Unlimited data options will come back for the hotspots at a premium, but pricing will be tiered by speed,” the source claims. Sprint will also introduce group plans that will apply to the new Nextel devices.

Sprint Freedom

Another part of plan, says that source, concerns Sprint’s prepaid businesses Virgin Mobile and Boost. Collectively, users on these two networks may generate less revenue than Sprint’s postpaid operations, but they serve as a useful counterbalance to the other service, adding customers last quarter as the number of ARPU-rich postpaid users declined.

Like Nextel and Clear, Virgin Mobile and Boost came to Sprint via acquisitions, and it looks like the carrier is now putting that in order, too.

Boost and Virgin Mobile will get wrapped into a new, single service called “Sprint Freedom.” It’s not entirely clear but it sounds as if this could mean the eventual scrapping of the two existing brands. Assurance Wireless, the free mobile phone service provided by Virgin Mobile under the Universal Service Fund, will not be affected, our source says.

While a lot of these plans sound like logical consolidation moves for the company, the question mark will be whether Sprint will manage to juggle all the changes without dropping anything (or anyone) in the process. A new Nextel business service would effectively mean a double-leap with a set of legacy products: first turning the Clear service into one focused less on consumers and more on businesses; and second rebranding it as a Nextel offering, but different from what Sprint was selling as a Nextel service not too long ago.

In the meantime, it is also not clear how a service called Sprint Freedom would sit alongside other services also called “Freedom” — such as Sprint’s international calling plans, not to mention the Freedom Pop “free” wireless service that is a wholesale customer on Sprint’s network.

And just as the closure of the Nextel brand earlier this year may have left some wondering whether Sprint would really let Nextel disappear into thin air, now the same might be said for Boost, Virgin Mobile and Clear. “It’s been a contentious issue for many,” our source said of the internal response to the changes. Perhaps one reason why these details got leaked to us.

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Dish and Sprint to trial fixed LTE broadband in Texas

Dish may already be testing wireless broadband in Virginia, but it's not content to stop there. The TV provider has just partnered with Sprint on an upcoming trial of fixed LTE service in Corpus Christi, Texas. Both companies are shy on details, although they expect to use both indoor and outdoor routers when the test run begins in mid-2014. Service will expand to more areas in the future, although Dish and Sprint aren't being more specific; we've reached out for further details. Whatever they do next, the experiment is good news for those who want more (or at least faster) rural broadband in the US.

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Source: Dish

FierceWireless Tags: CorpusChristi, dish, dishnetwork, FixedBroadband, FixedWireless, internet, lte, networking, sprint, trial, wireless Next: Xbox 360 Time Warner Cable app finally gets video-on-demand .fyre .fyre-comment-divider

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Sprint is considering a bid for T-Mobile

14 December, 2013 | Comments (1) | Post your comment

Tags: Sprint, T-Mobile, Rumors

The Wall Street Journal has published a report suggesting US carrier Sprint is working on making a bid for T-Mobile. According to the sources issuing the information, Sprint is currently researching and studying the regulations in order to launch a bid and plans to do so in the first half 2014.

It's too early for Sprint to have any price in mind, although according to analysts the deal could be worth more than $20 billion. The price would largely depend on the stake Sprint would like to acquire from T-Mobile.

This is just a rumor for now, as Sprint hasn't talked of any such plans. Even if it does want to move forward with a bid, the carrier would face the US regulators and antitrust authorities, who almost two years ago shut down AT&T's bid for the Deutsche Telekom owned US carrier.

If Sprint and T-Mobile were to merge, though, they'd boast a combined subscriber base of 53 million people. This would help even the field of US carriers and make things more interesting in terms of competition. AT&T is currently second with 72 million subscribers, while Verizon leads with 92 million.

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- reader commentsRakergo home sprint you are drunk. t mobile can themself buy sprint

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Sprint to launch Galaxy S 4 variant with speedy Spark LTE

Sprint already has a few devices that support its extra-fast Spark data service, but one of its hottest smartphones -- Samsung's Galaxy S 4 -- has been "stuck" with ordinary LTE. That won't be a problem for much longer, as the carrier has revealed a Spark-capable version of the Android flagship. The upgrade won't do much more than introduce support for the tri-band wireless technology, but we doubt that owners will complain when they're downloading at a brisk 50-60Mbps. They may balk at the price, though. While the regular GS4 currently sells for $100 on contract, Sprint will offer a 16GB Spark edition for $200 when it ships in the next few weeks -- you'll have to really, really want that extra bandwidth (and live in a Spark area) to justify the premium.

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Source: Sprint

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