Sprint was once a great phone company and now it is in collapse
I’ve already written about my troubles with Sprint. So I was, of course, interested to read this article about big job cuts at Sprint:
Sprint, the No. 3 wireless carrier behind AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless (VZ), has struggled since it merged with Nextel in 2005. The $70 billion merger, engineered by Hesse’s predecessor, Gary Forsee, was supposed to create a wireless behemoth that could steamroll the competition while pushing boundaries in wireless.
Instead, Sprint stumbled as it tried to blend starkly different cultures of the two companies while trying to reconcile their incompatible wireless technologies.
Sprint wound up alienating customers, who bolted by the thousands. Sprint’s dismal performance eventually cost Forsee his job. Hesse, a former AT&T executive with long ties to wireless, was recruited from a Sprint spinoff, Embarq, to replace him.
Dawson says it’s not too late to save Sprint, a grand name in global telecommunications. “But they need to make some big changes and do it quickly.
“The challenge for them is to figure out how to save the Nextel customers,” and move them to Sprint’s network “rather than let them walk out the door,” Dawson says.
Actually, they should worrry about losing their Sprint customers. I’m a Sprint customer, and I’m frustrated that their automated bill paying service keeps telling me “You do not have an account with Sprint.”