In a November interview about upcoming budget cuts with Reuters, Sprint Chief Financial Officer Tarek Robbiati offered, “We’ll go after everything including snacks and yogurt cups.” Apparently that didn’t include donating emergency radios to local communities for their cop shops, fire, recreation and service departments. The carrier has given $1.3 million in equipment to Strongsville, OH, which describes itself as “a vibrant suburb of Cleveland, Ohio that blends a bustling business community with small-town charm.” Now, along with “distinctive neighborhoods, abundant shopping, 2,400 acres of green space, excellent services, top-notch schools and active civic groups – a mix that makes Strongsville an ideal place for families to live, work and thrive,” the town boasts, thanks to Sprint, “a major influx of technology for the city,” says Director of Communications and Technology John Bedford in the town’s January newsletter.
“Sprint donated about 210 brand new radios to the city after the Federal Communications Commission mistakenly allowed the company to use radio frequencies reserved for public safety,” citizens are told.
“The FCC gave Sprint credits for several billion dollars in license fees, money that the company is required to pay the government, to put toward fixing the problem. The company could have used the extra money to retune existing public safety radio frequencies, but Strongsville’s equipment was too old to be fixed.”
The radios cost between $3,000 and $6,000 each. Just in time for the town’s 200th birthday in 2018.
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