Nationwide Connectivity: A Reality for All Carriers  

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Yesterday at the Competitive Carrier Association’s Global Expo in Atlanta, Georgia, Terry Addington, CEO of MobileNation, moderated a panel regarding CCA’s Device Hub, Data Services Hub, and Sprint’s commitment to work with the smaller. Last year, Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son delivered the keynote speech where he announced Sprint would be offering partners low-cost access to the equipment needed to build out LTE networks, as well as low-cost access to smartphones and tablets to take advantage of the technology. “We would like to assist you. If you need CAPEX, LTE equipment, we would strongly support you, financially and systematically,” Sprint Chairman Masayoshi Son said March 27, during a keynote address at the CCA Global Expo 2014. CCA and Sprint developed this approach to compete against the duopoly that is Verizon and AT&T. A year later the program has progressed. Addington noted, “Because of the hard work from a lot of people, we’ve got things that are happening, that are real, that are tangible, and should and will bring value to the small carriers as we develop this partnership to compete against the two large carriers.”

Steve Barker, Senior VP, Distribution Services, at Brightstar said that the journey for them started the day after Son’s speech. “It kind of connected with our relationship with Sprint where we supported several other distribution opportunities, and one of them that’s going to be very similar to what the CCA opportunity will be is the MVNO distribution work that Sprint conducts on behalf of their MVNO partners.”

Bradley Blanken, VP, Industry Development at CCA said, “I think from the CCA’s perspective it’s been an interesting course of auction. We started looking at this well in advance of Masa’s speech having been involved in the conversations leading up to that speech. But also, I tip my hat to my boss on helping with the advocacy piece. I think everybody looks at the organization as an advocacy organization, as they should, but there are ways to work together on the business side to complement those efforts.”

The idea around these programs really comes down to three core tenants: It’s getting access to devices at the same time as the Tier 1 operators at the same cost with as broad as a portfolio as possible.  Aaron Gillespie, Director Operations of Nex-Tech Wireless explained that they have had a long standing relationship with Sprint from an intercarrier services position. Nex-Tech was a lead carrier the CCA’s Roaming Hub, and their Device Hub. “We obviously have customers to serve that demand nationwide LTE so it was a natural fit for us to be part of the Roaming Hub. Due to Sprint’s involvement with that, and their coast-to-coast LTE, we took it [Device Hub] as an opportunity to move forward with our relationship with Sprint and the CCA. We see this as an opportunity to have a fruitful, iconic roadmap for us for long term not just in 2015, but 2016 and beyond.”

Nathan Robson, Senior Director of Marketing, at nTelos Wireless noted that with the ability to work with multiple organizations like Sprint, CCA, Brightstar, etc. they were able to see all of the separate dynamics on making this work together. Ryan Sullivan, VP. Product Engineering & Development, at Sprint explained that the company’s engagement with the program started before Son’s speech, but the program has a lot of benefits. “From a roaming perspective, the benefits are pretty readily known, pretty self explanatory. The ability for all of us to be able to expand our roadmaps to suit our business needs, and partner together on a set of standards to allow for the interoperability was key. And so that was the path of least resistance to get up, and I think it’s going very well,” Sullivan said.

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