Backbone Directory: Sprint

In addition to its global network, Sprint offers ISPs the ability to blend wireless and wireline services.

by Jeff Goldman [March 16, 2005]

Founded in 1899 as the Brown Telephone Company in Abilene, Kansas, Sprint now serves 26 million customers in more than 70 countries. In 2004, the company was streamlined into three essential divisions: Sprint Consumer Solutions, or SCS; Sprint Business Solutions, or SBS; and the Sprint Local Telecommunications Division, or LTD. Each division

Sprint boasts one of the world's largest IP networks, connecting more than a quarter of global Internet traffic—the company maintains over 1,100 POPs in more than 100 countries worldwide. The U.S. OC-192 SprintLink network, which includes nearly 40,000 route miles of fiber and over 400 SONET rings, uses Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) to improve flexibility and alternative routing options for greater fault tolerance.

For its ISP customers, Sprint is primarily focused on serving their backbone needs. "What we're also finding an increasing demand for is being able to interconnect at a carrier hotel or a shared tenant site—a lot of ISPs will put in equipment at a particular location and then want to interface between multiple carriers in the same physical location," says Chris Mullen, Manager of Strategic Product Marketing for Sprint Wholesale.

As the only telecommunications company to operate both a global wireline network and a nationwide wireless network, Sprint is also able to offer a combination of the two services to its customers. "You're starting to see more delivery of data, whatever that data is—television, email, SMS, or traditional Internet—occurring on that wireless handset," Mullen says. "So one of the things that we propose to our customers is that as an ISP, if you want to continue taking advantage of the basic customers you have, that's yet another revenue stream for you to be thinking about—and where we see value with our company today and in the future is that we've already integrated those services: we have an integrated wireline to wireless network, so I can get your handset onto that Tier 1 IP backbone and get you anywhere in the world."

Corporate Contact Info:
 

Executive:	Gary D. Forsee, Chairman and CEO
Corporate Address:	6200 Sprint Parkway, Overland Park, KS 66251
Toll Free:	(800) 829-0965
Sales:	(877) 579-3282
Current Network Status:	Network Status
Routing Nodes:	Domestic and International Routing Locations
ISP Services:	Internet Access Services
Press Releases:	Newsroom
Financial:	NYSE: FON