Sprint today announced that it has reached 4G LTE agreements with 12 rural and regional network carriers, giving smaller carriers a clear path forward to high speed mobile broadband
Furthering the initiatives announced in March by Sprint, Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) and the NetAmerica Alliance, these agreements seek to increase wireless competition by providing the carriers – and their customers – low-cost access to Sprint’s nationwide 4G LTE network and an opportunity to pursue an expanded range of mobile devices.
These agreements also help accelerate the deployment and utilization of 4G LTE across America where the cost of building such networks and the roaming costs are often prohibitively expensive.
Along with Sprint’s previously announced amended agreement with nTelos to extend their Strategic Network Alliance through 2022, the Rural Roaming Preferred Program – which was developed in conjunction with CCA – now extends coverage to 23 states, over 352,000 thousand square miles and a population of over 34 million people.
Sprint has done 4G LTE roaming with SouthernLINC Wireless covering Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida; nTelos covering Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky (previously announced); C Spire Wireless covering Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Tennessee; Nex-Tech Wireless covering Kansas and Colorado, Flat Wireless covering Texas, New Mexico and Arizona; SI Wireless dba MobileNation covering Tennessee and Kentucky; Inland Cellular covering Idaho and Washington; Illinois Valley Cellular covering Illinois; Carolina West Wireless covering North Carolina; James Valley Telecommunications covering South Dakota; and VTel Wireless covering Vermont and Phoenix Wireless covering Maine.
“These agreements demonstrate Sprint’s commitment to provide better coverage, a faster network and a wider selection of lower-cost wireless devices to all customers, regardless of where they live,” said Michael C Schwartz, senior vice president, Corporate and Business Development, Sprint.
In addition to reducing roaming costs for carriers and improving competition, the Rural Roaming Preferred Program works to broaden Sprint’s coverage footprint by giving its customers the ability to roam on regional and rural carriers’ networks.
As part of the program, Sprint is also working with CCA and rural carriers to pursue participation in the Sprint device and infrastructure ecosystem to help them reduce network build costs and gain earlier access to the latest devices at lower prices through increased scale.
Steven K Berry, president & CEO, CCA said, “Sprint’s commitment to creating an open ecosystem provides smaller rural and regional carriers with a clear pathway to 4G LTE technologies and devices they need to remain competitive. Consumers can benefit from faster speeds and access to the device of their choosing as a result of these agreements. By working together through the CCA Rural Roaming Preferred Program or the NetAmerica Alliance program.”
These agreements complement the Small Market Alliance for Rural Transformation (SMART) initiative previously announced by Sprint and the NetAmerica Alliance, which provides participating rural communications service providers the capabilities they need to compete and thrive in delivering 4G LTE mobile broadband services to their communities.
“The response to SMART has been overwhelming and we are rapidly moving interested parties through an aggressive but thorough process of matching their business objectives to the opportunity presented by SMART,” stated Roger Hutton, NetAmerica CEO & Chairman.
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