Business Insight

Oliver Valente was appointed Senior Vice President of Product Development for the Sprint Nextel Corporation in February 2005. In this role, Oliver is responsible for product development and lifecycle management, handset design, procurement, product usability and product strategy and innovation. Prior to his current role, Valente was Vice President of Technology Development and Chief Technology Officer. In that role, he oversaw research, development, design and delivery of all new and emerging technologies for Sprint’s global integrated wireless and wireline network in the form of products, features, devices and functionality.

BM. What trends are you’re seeing in the mobile broadband market right now?
OV. We’re seeing very strong growth for mobile broadband services at the moment. Businesses, especially, are becoming more and more comfortable with the technology now that they’ve had a chance to deploy connection cards, for instance, into their organizations, overcome some of their initial concerns and prove out the ROI.

We’re also seeing many of our customers change the way they do business, essentially becoming ‘real-time’ businesses that operate when and where they want, versus having to go back to the office to access their high-bandwidth business applications and complete their work. Operating your business in real-time, in many circumstances, not only makes employees more productive, but also creates a better experience for their customers. For instance, a real estate agent with a mobile broadband connection card can not only have access to e-mail while managing an open house, but can also look up MLS listings for customers who may be visiting that open house. Everyone wins. And it’s really transforming how businesses do business.

Another trend that we’re seeing is the development and deployment of applications that leverage mobile connectivity. Now that the network reaches over half the people in the US businesses are getting very smart in how they use it.

BM. You mentioned strong growth, what’s driving the growth?
OV. First, the ROI for mobile broadband is readily apparent for most businesses. For as little as US$39.99 per month, your employees can be connected in nearly every major metropolitan area in the US. Businesses can now access all the bandwidth-intensive applications that make running a business more efficient, nearly anywhere. Once you have that speed and availability, you never want to go back. For example, a manufacturing rep at a customer site could look up online diagnostics for a piece of equipment he’s there to fix, check to see if that part is in inventory online, perform a credit check on the customer, order the part online, and then leave for his next jobsite – all without having to drive back to the office to access those applications.

Also, mobile broadband provides simplicity for both the end-user and the IT staff. Employees can spend less time trying to figure out where to connect and then how to get connected, because with mobile broadband your employee has one connection manager to use and one password to connect across the US. And the IT staff only has to work with one service provider, one access method, negotiate one price plan nationwide, and have one service organization to work with for the entire US.

Many of our customers are also choosing mobile broadband for the speed of installation, or using it as a backup. Many businesses can’t afford to wait six to eight weeks for an ISDN line to be installed in a new location, but can immediately get mobile broadband service in most locations, even a new construction site. And since it’s a wholly redundant access method it makes a great backup as well.

BM. What should a customer look for when choosing a mobile broadband provider?
OV. First, you want to make sure you are getting true broadband download speeds of 400-700kbps with a peak of 2Mbps. Today, you can only get those speeds nationwide with CDMA technology.

Coverage is also very important. Although Sprint has the largest mobile broadband network in the nation, covering over 152 million people – half the US – we still encourage our customers to get a card or device and test it in the areas where they think they will use it the most. We rarely see cards returned, but we do have a return policy that gives customers a few weeks, to test their service and coverage and return their device and cancel their service if it doesn’t meet their needs. They just pay for the service that they used.

Security has historically been a concern for our customers as well. Sprint’s PCS network is an inherently secure, spread spectrum CDMA technology with end-to-end level of authentication and encryption. Traffic goes through multiple stages of encoding and encryption – as well as spreading – before reaching its destination. And we offer additional security options for business users such as VPNs and managed services options.

Business users will also want to look at the application options that are available such as fleet management, and find and navigate options. And finally, customers will want to make sure they’re getting a good value for their service.

BM. You mentioned value last. Why?
OV. Well, first let me say that we feel very strongly that we are the value leader. Sprint’s monthly Unlimited Connection Card plans are the most competitive in the marketplace. And our Phone-as-Modem plans are half as much as our closest competitor. We charge less than our competition for comparable connection cards, and we don’t add on extra fees for cables and software that is required for our Phone-as-Modem plans. That being said, the ROI is generally significant enough that customers usually consider coverage, security and applications first when making a purchase decision.

BM. Smart devices can hold a significant amount of proprietary data. How are customers dealing with the risk of simply losing a device?
OV. Managing devices has been a problem that’s been around for quite a while. Thousands of devices are left in taxicabs and other places every year, but customers also have a difficult time just knowing what devices and plans they have in the field. Sprint offers managed mobility solutions that allow customers to manage, track and control their devices from a remote portal, even devices from multiple carriers. Customers can extend their IT policy and administration controls to a device remotely and, if a device is lost or stolen, an administrator can kill or disable it over the air. They can also backup or restore files as well. Managed mobility also provides billing management capabilities that allow customers to manage reporting, organize and track individual mobile usage, and enforce expense policies. We’re the only carrier that offers this type of product and have won multiple awards for it.

BM. What new services or products should we look for over the next few months?
OV. Sprint will be launching EV-DO Release A devices in the third quarter of this year. EV-DO Release A will provide about 15 percent faster average downloads and about 600 percent faster uploads. The EV-DO Release A network will not be launched until the first quarter of 2007, when it will be available to about 150 million people, but since the devices are backwards compatible it makes since to launch them prior to the network being turned on. They’ll work on the Release O network until the Release A network is available. We’re also launching a USB device in the third quarter which plugs into the USB slot on a desktop computers or a laptop.

We’ve also recently launched mobile broadband routers. These work similar to the Wi-Fi routers that many people have in their homes today, except that instead of plugging your wireline connection into the router so that it can access the internet, you slide a connection card into it. You can then literally drive around in your car broadcasting a Wi-Fi signal. We’re seeing a lot of businesses use these to provide access to small teams of mobile employees.

BM. What applications are customers using with mobile broadband?
OV. The most widely used apps appear to be the standard office tools such as wireless e-mail, internet and intranet access, office applications and document sharing, followed by portals, e-mail storage, wireless web conferencing and instant messaging.

We’re also seeing a lot of customers using vertical specific applications such as fleet management and supply chain management and we think we’ll continue to see strong growth in these areas because they’re a core driver of efficiency within an organization. Customers want to be able to purchase a complete solution from their provider, and we see that as an opportunity to drive additional revenue.

BM. Tell us more about some of the vertical applications…
OV. Mobile broadband opens up a whole new way to manage businesses beyond just voice and data. Enterprises are looking to find, navigate, track, message with and manage their workforces and assets. They generally want to purchase applications and deploy them in an efficient and scalable manner so they can improve their productivity, lower expenses and improve satisfaction for their customers. Mobile broadband applications meet that need by providing real time, measurable improvements.

Sprint has an entire portfolio of GPS-enabled and non-GPS applications on both our iDEN network and our CDMA network. Today we have over 100 partners registered in the Sprint Application Developer program that are helping to provide these services. Our applications include both device and network-initiated applications. And we support both packaged applications, such as TeleNav, and the development of customer-specific applications using Sprint’s Business Mobility Framework. Most applications that we offer today cost between US$10 and US$25 per seat.

BM. Who are you primarily targeting with these?
OV. We have applications that apply to all sizes of companies from enterprise-level businesses down to your local plumber. And we have applications that apply to all major business processes. Primarily, applications are categorized into find and navigate, fleet and supply chain management, field service automation, sales force automation, and vertical specific solutions.

BM. What are your most popular applications?
OV. Some of our most popular applications today are TeleNav, Sprint Mobile Locator and Sprint Precision Locator. With an application like Business Mobility Framework for instance, a local plumber could look at an online map, see where each of his employees are, and have the ability to message their next assignment to them. Businesses can also set up zones and receive text messages when an employee’s phone moves outside of a set perimeter. It’s a very efficient way to manage your business, make quick decisions and eliminate a lot of dialing.