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.
coverage So these 12 operators combined cover 34 million people in 23 states, which should help Sprint out a lot, even with some overlap. They won't be Spark areas, but LTE will be a big improvement over what they have available today, most likely.
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