Stems market and retail store expansion of a wireless service offered in tandem with cable MSOs, citing mounting provisioning issues
Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) has decided to stem the expansion of "Pivot" -- a wireless service offered in tandem with Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC), Cox Communications Inc. , and Bright House Networks -- as provisioning issues continue to mount.
Speaking Thursday during the company's third-quarter conference call Q&A session, acting CEO Paul Saleh said Pivot has been launched in 33 markets and is presently available in about 20 percent of Sprint's retail stores. (See Sprint Reports Q3.)
"But as our focus is on simplifying the business and particularly focusing on the customer experience, we've made a decision not to expand that service in other markets and other stores," he said. "We're still very strategically aligned with the cable companies," Saleh added later.
He attributed the decision in part to provisioning complexities, and the inability so far to simplify the process at the point of sale.
"It's an integrated product... with retail it's made it difficult to deliver in a timely and simple process," Saleh noted. "We're working hard [with cable partners] on simplifying that offering to the marketplace."
While Saleh confirmed Sprint's alignment with its MSO partners, his company recently snipped one of its tethers to the cable industry.
Earlier this summer, the company exercised its right to drop out of the SpectrumCo bidding consortium, which won 137 wireless spectrum licenses last October. (See Sprint to Exit SpectrumCo Venture and SpectrumCo Gets Licenses .)
Sprint held a non-voting 5 percent equity stake when the SpectrumCo partnership was formed.
— Jeff Baumgartner, Site Editor, Cable Digital News
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