Sprint to spend $3B on improvements

[azcellphonejunkie]

Sprint will spend US$3 billion over the next three years to upgrade its U.S. wireless network, including the development of high-speed Internet services.
The wireless telephony carrier has signed three-year contracts with Lucent and Nortel Networks , as well as a contract extension with Motorola through the end of 2006.

Divvying Up the Deals

Lucent's deal with Sprint will be worth more than $1.5 billion over three years, while Nortel's share of the contracts will be worth about $1 billion. The extension of Motorola's existing infrastructure supply contract will be worth $450 million.

Lucent will upgrade existing base stations to support new high-speed technology, allowing Sprint to increase the capacity and coverage of its PCS voice and data network as required, Sprint said.



Nortel will supply enhanced wireless infrastructure equipment, including radio base stations, controllers and switching platforms. The deal also covers potential broadband data upgrades.

EV-DO and EV-DV

In June 2004, Sprint said it would add a high-speed data technology called EV-DO (Evolution, Data Optimized) to its network in major U.S. metropolitan areas in 2005. Sprint said Tuesday that this upgrade would cost $1 billion, with the majority being spent next year.

The $1 billion also includes options for EV-DV (Evolution, Data Voice), the next generation of high-speed technology that Sprint is considering, while the remaining $2 billion covers the cost of various enhancements to its network.

In a statement, Sprint says EV-DO technology will increase mobile-device data speeds by a factor of 10.

Hedging Its Bets

"We are working on the future, even as we are getting ready for EV-DO," Bob Azzi, Sprint's vice president for network engineering, told NewsFactor.

"We have several technology upgrade options available, for example EV-DO version A and also EV-DV, and will make our investment decisions based on the state of the current technology. The enhancements we are also planning to our network include capacity upgrades and performance improvements."

[Andy]

Great to see that VZW isn't the only one spending tons of $$$ on its network and on network upgrades!

[larry]

I believe all carriers are doing similar upgrades like this all the time. The only difference is Verizon is the one that publicizes it the most.

[Andy]

...and I think they spend a little more as well...

[larry]

Probably. The more customers you have the more you have to spend to keep things up. It goes with the territory.

[Steve B]

Originally Posted by Andy84094 Great to see that VZW isn't the only one spending tons of $$$ on its network and on network upgrades!

The difference being VZW will spend $3Billion in one year or less while Sprint is only doing it over the next 2 or 3 years.

[Andy]

thank you for backing me on this one...I knew Larry would jump in
BTW, VZW is said to spend at least $4Billion a year, but I've heard somewhere that with the Broadband upgrades, etc. they'll spend more than $5Billion this year on their network alone.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by larry Probably. The more customers you have the more you have to spend to keep things up. It goes with the territory.

Not only probably

[WirelessBeachBum]

Verizon Spends 1 Billion dollars every 90 days on network improvements...

I wonder what Sprint (plus the affiliates spend) that's the only problem with trying to see the overall picture with Sprint, because their affiliates (most of them) build their own networks, so they have to absorb that cost.

Larry, do you know if that number is floating around somewhere?

[larry]

Sprint doesn't really make those things very public so you never really know the numbers. However by the way they keep making improvements here in California, I can't complain.

[Airb330]

Still haven't seen one cent of this billions of dollars in improvement in my area. In fact, I was just up into rural **** PA (south of Kennet Square), Cingular was 100%, Verizon was totally dead last time I was up there...and I bet it still is.

[Gman]

The news article is an announcement of new contracts to provide network upgrades for EV-DO etc. It is not the total amount that Sprint is spending on it's network in any given period of time. To compare the numbers with any other provider is not a valid comparison. I'm amazed at times by the twisting of information to meet one's needs.

[agentHibby]

Verizon will still do their normal 4 billion in upgrades. This will be for just about everything from new towers new and switching stations. This does not include EV-DO upgrades that is where the total goes 5 billion.

[larry]

Originally Posted by Andy84094 thank you for backing me on this one...I knew Larry would jump in BTW, VZW is said to spend at least $4Billion a year, but I've heard somewhere that with the Broadband upgrades, etc. they'll spend more than $5Billion this year on their network alone.

LOL come Andy you don't need to be "backed up" on anything here. *rolling eyes*. I'm not doubting that the almighty Verizon doesn't spend the most money. Why did this thread have to immediately turn into a comparison with Verizon anyhow?

[larry]

Originally Posted by Gman The news article is an announcement of new contracts to provide network upgrades for EV-DO etc. It is not the total amount that Sprint is spending on it's network in any given period of time. To compare the numbers with any other provider is not a valid comparison. I'm amazed at times by the twisting of information to meet one's needs.

Glad to see I'm not the only one Gman.

[larry]

Originally Posted by SBacklin The difference being VZW will spend $3Billion in one year or less while Sprint is only doing it over the next 2 or 3 years.

Each carrier does what they need to do to meet their individual needs. Obviously the larger carriers with more customers will have to spend much more money on their network.

[agentHibby]

I don't know if Moodys and S&P is letting Wireless companies have more debt load now??? Or is wireless providers more profitable now?? Or wireless providers are building less towers so they can do more tower upgrades (this one I kind of doubt)

[azcellphonejunkie]

I didn't really mean for this to be a shooting match between Sprint and other companies. I was only pointing out that they are allocating money to other companies for improvements. Good for Sprint is all I have to say!

[Matt]

Originally Posted by agentHibby I don't know if Moodys and S&P is letting Wireless companies have more debt load now??? Or is wireless providers more profitable now?? Or wireless providers are building less towers so they can do more tower upgrades (this one I kind of doubt)

Some wireless providers are becoming more profitable. T-Mobile USA has turned a profit the last two (or three) quarters - first time ever. Their capital expenses have increased to somewhere around $2.5B for 2004, up about $500M from last year IIRC.

[ehcruzan]

Originally Posted by Gman The news article is an announcement of new contracts to provide network upgrades for EV-DO etc. It is not the total amount that Sprint is spending on it's network in any given period of time. To compare the numbers with any other provider is not a valid comparison. I'm amazed at times by the twisting of information to meet one's needs.

Sorry to rain on the party, but read the following quote from the article above:

Originally Posted by azcellphonejunkie The $1 billion also includes options for EV-DV (Evolution, Data Voice), the next generation of high-speed technology that Sprint is considering, while the remaining $2 billion covers the cost of various enhancements to its network.

[larry]

But these numbers do not include Sprint affiliate investements. Affiliates make up a huge portion of Sprint's network so it would also be fair to included those numbers (whatever they might be) in Sprint's total since they use Sprint's spectrum and offer the same service.

[Andy]

Originally Posted by larry LOL come Andy you don't need to be "backed up" on anything here. *rolling eyes*. I'm not doubting that the almighty Verizon doesn't spend the most money. Why did this thread have to immediately turn into a comparison with Verizon anyhow?

Lol, I know I know My Bad!

[Gman]

Originally Posted by ehcruzan Sorry to rain on the party, but read the following quote from the article above:

True, it's semantics at this point but it does not say that it represents the total amount to be spent in the next three years.

Here is another article with more detail- looks like some cool stuff coming

TelephonyOnline.com, Dec 7 2004





Revealing the first details of its planned CDMA 1X EV-DO launch, Sprint today announced it would invest up to $3 billion in its new network upgrades, divided among vendors Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks and Motorola, and would be the first U.S. carrier to deploy IMS.
Of the outlay, $2 billion will go toward upgrading the network core and expanding the existing 1X network, bringing new basestations, transport, switching, packet data service nodes (PDSNs), basestation controllers and the softswitches, gateways and servers forming the foundation of the IP multimedia subsystems platform. The remaining $1 billion will cover the actual EV-DO access network upgrades, which involve installing new channel cards in existing 1X basestations and new RF carriers at each cell site. Each vendor will focus on the markets where it has its existing 1x basestations deployed. In addition, Sprint has dictated that all of the network buildouts will be made ready for possible upgrades to either both EV-DO release A or EV-DV release D, though Sprint has not yet settled on which technology evolution to pursue.

"It remains to be seen which technology we’ll migrate to," said Bob Azzi, vice president of network engineering for Sprint. "EV-DO release A has a lot of momentum right now because of the focus on DO, but we’re still leaving the door open for EV-DV. It will depend on which technology allows us to offer the best combination of services to our customers."

The biggest winner in the deal is Lucent, which won a $1.5 billion contract over three years to upgrade Sprint’s current Lucent base stations to EV-DO, supply new RF carriers and provide key elements for an IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS) platform. IMS would converge Sprint’s network, using VoIP to merge data and voice in the core network, allow for enhanced voice services and pave the way for end-to-end IP in the future.

Lucent will deploy its Accelerate softswitch, gateways and super-distributed home location register (S-DHLR), three elements that will enable Sprint to manage both wireless and wireline and voice and multimedia communications coming over the network. Lucent said its S-DHLR will allow Sprint to create an individual profile for each of its subscribers allowing them to track each user across its wireless and wireline networks and the services available to them.

Motorola’s portion was $450 million over one-year, its largest mobile broadband infrastructure deal to date for a single year. It is an extension of its existing CDMA 1X supply deal for 1X basestation equipment and upgrades to EV-DO. Nortel received a three-year contract worth $1 billion for new 1X basestation equipment and controllers and core switching platforms as well as future EV-DO upgrades. In addition, Nortel will provide its new PDSN 16000 to bulk up Sprint’s network for the new capacity demands of the EV-DO upgrades, a Nortel spokeswoman said.

Sprint’s announcement comes on the heels of Cingular’s own 3G strategy unveiling last week. Cingular awarded UMTS and HSDPA contracts worth an estimated $3 billion to $5 billion over four years to Ericsson, Lucent and Siemens. Over the weekend Lucent also announced another IMS win with U.K. operator MMO2. The carrier is launching its first commercial trial of IMS on the Isle of Man through Subsidiary Manx Telecom. IT contracted with Lucent to supply the UMTS/HSDPA architecture as well as the core IMS platform.



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[danny boi]

Hey guys. We are paying for these network improvements. I pay a few hundered a month towards these improvments. How about you?

How many of us actually see the receipts VZW, Sprint, and Cingular get after spending money on network improvements? For all we know they could be stretching the truth a little bit.

All companies do this. It's called raising awareness and consumer confidence in their company. This in turn builds confidence with company shareholders. How many of you want to guess how many positive reports ENRON made public before they went down.

[WirelessBeachBum]

Well because of the Enron and MCI mess, I do know that an entire new field has been put into place in many companies COMPLIANCE!

Compliance officers are popping up everywhere within organizations.

I know for a fact Verizon takes it very serious, and since legislation was passed that makes executives and management liable, I'm sure most other large companies have taken notice as well.