By doing so, it would ostensibly help accelerate the availability of 4G networks in rural America, increase competition, and expand Sprint's own footprint in areas where it lacks coverage. The mutual benefits won it a spot on Light Reading's Leading Lights short list for Best Dealmaker of 2014. (See Leading Lights Finalists 2014: Best Deal Maker).
The program, Small Market Alliance for Rural Transformation (SMART), which already included a roaming deal with Ntelos Inc. (Nasdaq: NTLO), now adds CCA members Southern Communications Services Inc. , C Spire , Nex-Tech Wireless , SI Wireless dba MobileNation, Inland Cellular, Illinois Valley Cellular, Carolina West Wireless, James Valley Telecommunications, VTel Wireless, and Phoenix Wireless.
NetAmerica says it has completed preliminary agreements with 14 companies and is in talks with around 40 more in 12 states.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of Sprint's parent SoftBank Corp. , said at the CCA show back in March that he'd help fund rural America's LTE deployments if need be. However, Sprint didn't reveal any financial terms with its first dozen participants. (See Rural Carriers: SoftBank Will Fund Your LTE.)
One name missing from the list is T-Mobile US Inc. , Sprint's acquisition target. As a CCA member that also lacks rural LTE coverage, T-Mobile is a likely candidate to join. Even if did merge with Sprint, they wouldn't have a sufficient rural footprint on their own. (See Sprint & T-Mobile: A Tale of Two Maps.)
billho888, User Rank: Light Beer 6/16/2014 | 5:08:10 PM
Re: coverage The benefit for Sprint is to extend their 800 and PCS footprint, thereby making their 'map' a little bigger. Is TNS the roaming clearing house?
Shouldn't be a surprise for SouthernLinc as they have similar interests in the 800 band for operations and LTE upgrading.
Light Reading’s Upskill U is a FREE, interactive, online educational resource that delivers must-have education on themes that relate to the overall business transformation taking place in the communications industry.
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Friday, September 30, 1:00PM EDT Gigabit & the Great Migration Robert Howald, Vice President, Network Architecture, Comcast
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Wednesday, October 5, 1:00PM EDT Gigabit & Smart Cities Joe Kochan, COO & Co-Founder, US Ignite
Friday, October 7, 1:00PM EDT Gigabit & DOCSIS 3.1 Ty Pearman, Director, Access Architecture, Comcast
Wednesday, October 19, 1:00PM EDT Securing a Virtual World Rita Marty, Executive Director, Mobility and Cloud Security, Chief Security Office, AT&T
Six different communications service providers join to debate their visions of the future CSP, following a landmark presentation from AT&T on its massive virtualization efforts and a look back on where the telecom industry has been and where it's going from two industry veterans.
Network operators should develop new APIs and business processes for reselling virtual assets to each other, says CenturyLink's Bill Walker. That will enable them to build digital business portfolios that help them avoid becoming commodity transport providers.
At Light Reading's NFV & Carrier SDN event in Denver, Travis Ewert of Level 3 Communications said there is terror in becoming supplier, integrator and developer, but it can be overcome and be cost effective.
Self-driving cars, medical sensors, smart cities... and refrigerators. In order to address the huge scope of IoT, KNect365 has created a unique online community that will help businesses to understand and monetize the opportunities that live within the IoT market. We look forward to welcoming you to IoT World News -- your gateway to a better connected future.
At Light Reading's NFV & Carrier SDN event in Denver, Ray Watson, vice president of Global Technology at Masergy, says that because of the growth in virtualization, the threat landscape is shifting in favor of the attackers. As a result, service providers need to think beyond just defending the perimeter and take a more holistic approach to security.
At September's NFV & Carrier SDN event in Denver, Light Reading sat down with Victoria Lonker, director of Product and New Business Innovation at Verizon, to chat about where the carrier is with delivering virtualized services to business customers.
More service providers than ever before are battling it out to win a slice of what is now a $40 billion global communications services pie, explains Ovum Principal Analyst David Molony.
Service providers can't compete with OTT players. It just isn't in their DNA. Instead, service providers need to embrace what they're good at -- providing reliable, secure connectivity.
Nick Thomas, practice leader of digital media at Ovum, talks about how digital transformation in the technology, media and telecom sectors will enable the development of a new range of applications and services for enterprises and consumers and how the upcoming Digital Futures event in London will examine ...
One of the main challenges for network operators introducing NFV is to combine performance and flexibility in a cost-effective way, but there is a solution, explains Napatech's Dan Joe Barry.
Self-driving cars, medical sensors, smart cities... and refrigerators. In order to address the huge scope of IoT, KNect365 has created a unique online community that will help businesses to understand and monetize the opportunities that live within the IoT market. We look forward to welcoming you to IoT World News -- your gateway to a better connected future.
One of the main challenges for network operators introducing NFV is to combine performance and flexibility in a cost-effective way, but there is a solution, explains Napatech's Dan Joe Barry.
F5's Kishore Patnam, product manager for F5's service provider solutions, discusses why service providers are moving towards virtualization and how his clients are utilizing F5's solutions.
Heavy Reading Senior Analyst Jim Hodges speaks with Accenture's Larry Socher and Matt Anderson about what service providers must do to transform their business to get the benefits of SDN and NFV including: leveraging DevOps, introducing real-time OSS and implementing analytics.
VeEX's Senior Director of Business Development, Perry Romano, explains how VeEX provides tools to help install, maintain, monitor and manage network infrastructure efficiently and effectively. The portfolio of products on display include the RXT-6000, MTTplus and TX300s.
Light Reading Editor Mitch Wagner talks to NetScout CMO Jim McNiel about maximizing the benefits of enterprise cloud and digital transformation while minimizing potential pitfalls with a proper monitoring and instrumentation strategy.
Many of the initial use case implementations are single-vendor and self-contained. The industry is still climbing the virtualization maturity curve, needing further clarity and stability in the NFV infrastructure (NFVi) and greater availability and choice of virtualized network functions (VNFs). Interoperability between NFVis and VNFs from different vendors ...
Senior Juniper Networks executives talk to Light Reading Founder & CEO Steve Saunders about NFV developments and the recent independent evaluation by test lab EANTC of Juniper's Cloud CPE solution.
At UBBS World Tour 2016, Alla Shabelnikova of Ovum shares the findings of a white paper outlining the challenges and opportunities of broadband rollout in Russia.
Light Reading CEO Steve Saunders and UXP Systems CEO Gemini Waghmare discuss the strategic importance of digital identity for operators in the midst of transformation.
Join us for an in-depth interview between Steve Saunders of Light Reading and Alexis Black Bjorlin of Intel as they discuss the release of the company's Silicon Photonics platform, its performance, long-term prospects, customer expectations and much more.
A vital part of increasing the number of women in comms is transforming the ways companies can support and empower women. While progressive company policies that support both men and women in achieving work-life balance are a step in the right direction, creating a company culture that supports those policies can at times be more challenging.
During this show, we'll talk to Lynn Comp, Senior Director of Industry and Sales Enabling (ISE) in the Network Platforms Group at Intel, about why those challenges exist and how companies can overcome them. She'll provide insight into how Intel has worked to create a culture that supports work-life balance, and provide steps and guidance for other companies wishing to do the same. We will also leave plenty of time to get your questions answered live on the air.
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