This may shed some light on the move...
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Dec. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Sprint announced today that in 1999 it will begin building high-speed digital subscriber line (DSL) links to its next-generation Sprint ION(SM), Integrated On-Demand Network, in 35 major U.S. cities. These connections will give large and small businesses, as well as consumers, cost-effective access to new communications services and will offer users integrated local, long-distance, data and video communications capabilities through Sprint ION.
When Sprint announced Sprint ION in June, officials said that Sprint ION's open architecture made it accessible through a number of technologies, including DSL, cable modems and other emerging options. Sprint said that DSL would be its preferred initial access method for small businesses and consumers. Sprint had planned to procure DSL access primarily by leasing it from regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs) and data competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs). However, with 100 years of experience in building local telephone networks as well as its expertise in data communications, Sprint concluded that it could roll out Sprint ION more quickly and efficiently by building its Sprint ION-capable, customer-controllable digital pipelines all the way to the customers' premises.
To implement its DSL build-out, Sprint has created a new organization dedicated to implementing its "last mile" broadband access solutions. In addition to last-mile deployment for Sprint ION, the new organization will deploy DSL technology to enable a new set of DSL-based services for customers of Sprint's 18-state Local Telecommunications Division (LTD), beginning in 1999.
Constructing ION-enabling gateways to the customer's premises
Sprint's plans include deploying broadband enabling equipment, such as digital subscriber line access multiplexers (DSLAMS), broadly in major markets, initially to 1,000 central offices by early 2000, ultimately spanning more than 1,600 central offices. Sprint will lease the copper wires connecting customers to the central offices (known as unbundled local loops) from incumbent local inter-exchange carriers. Sprint President and Chief Operating Officer Ronald T. LeMay said Sprint decided to build its own high-speed access facilities to ensure that customers eagerly anticipating the benefits of Sprint ION will not be stymied by inadequate local connections. But he emphasized that, while Sprint- constructed DSL is expected to be the initial broadband access technology, Sprint continues to explore a variety of access options.
LeMay said Sprint's announcement represents a strategic shift in emphasis in providing customers with access to its national broadband network. "Previously, our plans centered on securing agreements with CLECs and RBOCs for access to digital subscriber lines and, alternatively, building facilities where it made sense to do so," LeMay said. "Now, Sprint's primary approach will be to build our own broadband connecting facilities. As an alternative, and on a case-by-case basis, we will also continue to examine the economics of purchasing access from regional providers to expand our coverage."
LeMay said that Sprint can implement the new strategy within the capital expenditures already planned for Sprint ION.
Sprint ION is the innovative new network that will enable Sprint to consolidate a business' disparate networks and to provide homes and businesses with virtually unlimited bandwidth over a single existing connection, delivering simultaneous voice, video calls and data services.
Large businesses will tap into Sprint's network with dedicated, high-speed access lines connected to Broadband Metropolitan Area Networks (BMANs) -- high-bandwidth, fiber optic rings that encircle cities. Small businesses and consumers who currently have copper telephone lines connecting them to telephone networks must have those lines upgraded to supply more bandwidth. The copper telephone connections that most homes have carry about 56,000 bits of information per second. When those same lines are upgraded to DSL, they can handle up to 8 million bits of information per second -- giving users speeds more than 100 times faster than today's 56 kilobit modems. The additional bandwidth allows Sprint ION users to conduct simultaneous phone calls, Internet sessions, video conferences and data transfers over the same connection without having to install additional phone lines.
New Organization Dedicated to 'Last-Mile' Broadband Solutions
Sprint has formed a new organization to be responsible for implementing its "last mile" broadband solutions, consisting of DSL and other alternative access and delivery methods. LeMay said the new organization will construct or otherwise secure access facilities to ensure that potential Sprint ION customers will be able to access a digital bridge across the often problematic "last mile" between their homes or businesses and Sprint's advanced national broadband network. The new Broadband Local Networks organization will also oversee deployment of the closely allied broadband strategies of Sprint's Local Telecommunications Division.
Sprint LTD President Mike Fuller said the new Broadband Local Networks unit will leverage Sprint's unique industry position -- one that includes a 100-year-old local telephone heritage -- with the strategic advantage of building new networks from the ground up, with the latest generation of broadband, "Sprint ION-ready" hardware. Fuller announced the appointment of Will Prout, formerly Sprint LTD's senior vice president -- Network, to lead the new Broadband Local Networks organization. "With more than 20 years of experience in engineering, building, upgrading and maintaining local networks and proven leadership abilities, Will is the ideal choice to head up this important effort," Fuller said.
Sprint National Integrated Services President Kevin Brauer called the Broadband Local Networks initiative an important milestone for Sprint. "With the build-out that Broadband Local Networks will achieve, we will control more of our own destiny. Instead of talking about how we will deploy broadband technology, we are preparing to demonstrate it to our customers."
Local Division announces high-speed data deployment strategy
Sprint LTD's announcement builds on Sprint's local access strategy by providing high-speed access using DSL technologies, including asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), to its local telephone customers. Sprint LTD will make its consumer- and small business-oriented DSL-based services available to more than a third of its 7.6 million customer lines over the next three years, beginning in 1999.
The first full market, commercial launch of ADSL-based services in Sprint's local service area is planned for Charlottesville, Va., beginning in May 1999, to be followed in the second half of 1999 by launches in selected areas of Las Vegas and in Sprint's local service territories surrounding the metropolitan areas of Kansas City, Mo., and Orlando, Fla.
Sprint said its plans to build local access capabilities throughout America carry on a tradition of leading the industry in technological innovation. Sprint began building the world's first transcontinental, all- digital fiber optic network in 1984 and conducted the first transatlantic fiber-optic phone call in 1987. In subsequent years, Sprint has continued to set the pace for data communications, pioneering technological innovations widely used in today's Internet and business data networks.
Sprint is a global communications company -- at the forefront in integrating long distance local and wireless communications services -- and one of the world's largest carriers of Internet traffic. Sprint built and operates the United States' only nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network and is the leader in advanced data communications services. Sprint has $15 billion in annual revenues and serves more than 16 million business and residential customers.
SOURCE Sprint
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