I got outsourced
 

Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel confirmed today that it will indeed outsource the daily operations of its two wireless networks-both CDMA, iDEN, and wireline-to Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC), in a deal worth $4.5 to $5 billion over the length of the seven-year agreement. As part of the agreement, about 6,000 Sprint employees will begin working as Ericsson Services employees starting in the third quarter, according to a document filed today with the SEC.

Sprint was rumored to be considering such a move to save the company money. However, a deal of this kind was pretty controversial since outsourcing has not caught on here in the U.S. To be clear, the company is not transferring ownership or control of its network over to Ericsson, and will continue to control network strategy and investment decisions. It will also remain in compete control of the customer. Sprint said it expects to gain a competitive advantage by tapping into Ericsson's 30,000 trained experts, while also realizing immediate cost-savings on labor, network management and operations. Sprint is calling the project with Ericsson, "Network Advantage."

Sprint's President Steve Elfman said in a release: "No other U.S.-based carrier has followed through on the business-enhancing vision inherent in Network Advantage. Our best-ever network performance will become even better by leveraging Ericsson's world-class leadership in network services, their proprietary tools, and the knowledge of more than 30,000 dedicated and highly-specialized service professionals to power Sprint's Now Network."

I read this a whole lot of BS. Today on our internal teleconference they Swedish guy was talking about speaking swinglish and their great culture and blah blah blah. I in no way see how this could benefit Sprint.

I think the next step is to just go ahead and outsource all the customers right over to Verizon. :mad:

Ouch.

This will kill Sprint/Nextel. Outsourcing your core business never ends well. When a third party is in control of all of you competitive advantages and company secrets, your competition seems to learn about them MUCH quicker for some strange reason.

It's too bad too. I was a Nextel customer and then I switched to Sprint. As I've said a few times, I've found the customer service to be excellent. My contract has long since expired and I was considering a new phone, but I think I'll wait a little while and see how this pans out.

For the past year they have been doing stupid things like telling a tech to work 4/10's sending him out to a site that is a 4 hour drive one way. Tech gets 2 hours of work in and has turn around and drive home. We all saw this coming and it started when they got rid of the old wireline people (Kathy Walker) and the fk-tard wireless people started managing the business. Sprints CDMA unit is a failed business model and has been for quite some time.

After all the customers are long gone I hope the BOD et al enjoy stroking each other because that is exactly what is going to happen.

My sprint contract doesn't expire unil April, and I've been considering trading my Moto Q9C in for a Pre and renewing my contract. That "Simply everything" plan works very well for me. I think I'll be putting that move on hold now. :(

Randy

They're give themselves massive bonuses and move on to destroy some other company.

Anyone here ever worked for or with Ericsson? I would love to know what kind of company they are.

to hell with Sprint and the Swedes... This is nothing a good old fashioned Beeramid wont take care of.

I had the same experience when some bozo from the US came over to speak to us when the bank I worked for outsourced their IT to EDS. After some rambling about wanting to get to know my family it was clear to me I needed to switch jobs. Never regreted that decision.

IMHO the only party benefitting from outsourcing are the consultants who have the ear of the CEO

I'm in on a family plan that includes everything. 1 year 11 months to go on the contract. I haven't even picked out a phone yet. :eek:

From what I read in IT mags, iDen / Nextel is killing Sprint. Don't they have to abandon that frequency soon to DOD, thus killing the product? Or did they get another stay of execution?

thats really a non issue. re banding is market by market. Some journalists just like to pump things up. it is just shifting up in frequency a bit to clear some channels for gubmint.