joako
Premium
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to BillRoland
Re: sprint screwed nextel
NEXTEL was at capacity and you should know because it was an issue in our area. The "solution" so to speak was 2:1 interconnect so I guess you could say technically the network wasn't at capacity but the price was every person you spoke to sounded like a robot and you sounded like one to them. Just not acceptable to me. Every time I went to Ashtin or those people in the yellow building off Pine Ave they'd look at it say the phone was fine and that it was the network, I was the x person that day to complain about it.
I think that they did what any company would do during a merger... why are you going to suddenly continue to sign tower colocation leases when you just merged with a company that might hold similar assets. Choosing a tower site is something done in the long term. You just don't setup on a tower and decide to move it a year later it makes no financial sense and those are usually long-term contracts. You are going to see, obviously, less expansion after a merger as the companies align themselves. You have so many overlapping resources that you need to eliminate or else you're never going to make a return on your investment. Remember, shareholders = #1.
I don't think Sprint would spin off Nextel. They have already made a significant investment and have pretty much integrated the companies. They are just about done merging billing systems into one. I am sure much has been done to combine the operations of the two networks... e.g.: shared switching equipment, transport lines, tower space. Once everything is integrated the way I see it to spin off Nextel would be to keep about the same operating costs and loosing revenue.
The main issue is Sprint's poor customer service and their reputation for the same. They seriously should fire everyone and start over. I'm not saying its the people answering the phones I just think Sprint doesn't train people well, if at all and doesn't put the right people working at the right places.
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09:F9:11:02:9D:74:E3:5B:D8:41:56:C5:63:56:88:C0 |
mindfrost82
join:2003-04-19
Cortland, IL
| I completely agree joako. As far as customer service, I worked as a Sprint Business Specialist II in a call center before the merger. The training was long and hard for a lot of people. There were a few of us that were way ahead of the rest of the class. You should have seen some of the people they hired though, I know why their customer service is poor. Once out on the floor it was all about numbers, like it is with most call centers. Honestly though, their old billing system was horrible and confusing to a lot of people. |
joako
Premium
join:2000-09-07
/dev/null
·AT&T U-Verse
| Saw this article... basically confirming my thoughts.
Sprint Says Splitting Up Would Be A Nightmare
By Crayton Harrison
March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Sprint Nextel Corp., the wireless carrier formed by the merger of Sprint Corp. and Nextel Communications Inc. in 2005, couldn't easily be split up again, Chief Network Officer Kathy Walker said.
Separating operations would take longer than the integration of Nextel, Walker said today at a Bear Stearns conference in Palm Beach, Florida. Sprint has trained technicians to work on both companies' technologies and has combined network-monitoring operations, she said.
About 1.2 million users canceled their contracts with Sprint last year, complaining about poor customer service and dropped calls. The former Nextel network made up about one-third of Sprint's customers at the end of last year, compared with about 40 percent when the companies combined.
``With everything we've done, it'd probably take longer to undo it,'' Walker said, responding to a question about what it would take to split up. ``Taking that integration plan and reverse-engineering it would be the way we would look at it.''
Sprint, the third-biggest U.S. mobile-phone service provider, fell 10 cents to $6.07 at 1:04 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares had dropped 53 percent this year before today.
While Sprint has integrated many of its operations with Nextel's, it still runs networks that don't overlap much, Walker said. Sprint, based in Overland Park, Kansas, has combined network technology in about one-tenth of its wireless sites, with the rest dedicated solely to one system or the other for logistical reasons such as space limitations, she said.
No Buyers
Selling the former Nextel network would be difficult because there are no buyers, Lehman Brothers analyst Thomas Seitz said last month in a research note.
``We cannot think of a scenario where someone would want to re-enter the market as a fifth national player and heat up what is already a very competitive market,'' said Seitz, who is based in Washington and expects Sprint shares to perform in line with the broader market.
Instead of breaking up the company or shutting down the Nextel network, Sprint should try to stem subscriber losses to boost its share price, Seitz said.
Sprint may detail spending plans for a new network called Xohm when the company reports first-quarter results, Kurt Fawkes, vice president for investor relations, said today. The network will offer faster Internet connections for applications such as music and video downloads.
The company scrapped an agreement last year with Clearwire Corp. to share costs to build a network that would have reached as many as 100 million people. Paul Saleh, who stepped down as chief financial officer in January, said in December that the company could spin off Xohm, seeking outside investors to reduce the cost of building it.
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