Sprint Starts Big Enterprise Push With WiFiSprint Starts Big Enterprise Push With WiFi

Sprint is working with Ruckus Wireless to offer managed WiFi to enterprises, but Ruckus executives suggest it's just the start of the carrier's much grander plans for enterprise services.

Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S)'s Business Managed Services Group teamed up with Ruckus Wireless Inc. back in May to begin selling its full suite of Smart WiFi products to enterprises, with the most traction coming from the education and retail verticals in the past eight months. Both David Callisch, Ruckus VP of Marketing, and Joe Hlavin, Ruckus' director of carrier sales, say this is just the beginning of what Sprint has in store for the enterprise.

"On the commercial side, we're a piece of a larger offering Sprint is putting together," Hlavin says. "They have grander plans coming out for how they want to bring a competitive differentiator service offering to the enterprise."

The Ruckus men told Light Reading this around the same time reports came out that Sprint is looking to revive the defunct Nextel brand in the enterprise, offering a premium fixed and mobile broadband service as it originally did with Clearwire. Sources tell TechCrunch that Sprint's big enterprise push could start as soon as the first quarter and will also include blending its two prepaid arms, Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA Inc. (NYSE: VM). (See: Nextel Drags on Sprint as 4G Push Continues.)

Callisch and Hlavin were not familiar with Sprint's branding plans -- and Sprint did not respond to a request for comment, but the timing makes sense for Sprint to go big in the enterprise to work to regain the customers it lost when it shut down Nextel. More managed services are likely to be a part of that push.

"2014 should be a good year for Sprint in that area -- managed services," Hlavin says.

Sprint has long had a presence in the enterprise market, but most of its attention of late has been focused on its Network Vision upgrades, which include deploying its multimode LTE network, Sprint Spark, and filling in the gaps with small cells from Samsung Corp. and Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU). Ruckus is currently only working with the carrier on the enterprise front, but Hlavin says the WiFi vendor is also talking to Sprint about building out a complementary carrier WiFi strategy. (See: Sprint Plans to Add 4G LTE Urban Heft in 2014 and Sprint Has Samsung 4G LTE Small Cells: Analyst.)

"That's why I'm in Reston [Virginia] all the time, he says. "It's where Sprint's LTE guys are."

— Sarah Reedy, Senior Editor, Light Reading