Gartner Positions Sprint as a Challenger in Magic Quadrant for Global Network Service Providers

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), April 08, 2013 – Sprint (NYSE:S, news, filings) has advanced to a Challenger position within the most recent Gartner Magic Quadrant for Global Network Service Providers. Since the previously published Magic Quadrant report, Sprint has grown its global MPLS, Ethernet and SIP Trunking coverage for business and wholesale customers.

“Our sharp focus and investment on domestic and global MPLS footprint expansion and growing product portfolio has delighted both business and wholesale customers, and this, we believe, led to Gartner advancing Sprint from a Niche Player in last year’s report to a Challenger position in this year’s,” said Mike Fitz, vice president – wireline and solutions engineering, Sprint. “The Challenger position aligns with our mission to combine our unique insights into customer needs with a robust portfolio of managed network solutions to help companies leverage their network as a strategic differentiator. And with the increasing adoption of cloud services, the network is the most important investment a company can make to accelerate transformation and the speed of business.”

This magic quadrant report¹ assesses suppliers that can deliver fixed enterprise networking services worldwide, including:

• WAN services, predominantly managed, including Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) and IPsec VPNs, and Ethernet services
• Voice services, including switched and dedicated voice and SIP trunks
• Dedicated Internet services, including managed VPN offers

With its forward-thinking design approach and innovation in IP and wireless technologies, Sprint is uniquely positioned to unleash the full potential of business-critical applications and workforces through a single account team who understands converged, cloud and mobility solutions.

Also according to the report, “The number of organizations requiring global networking services continues to grow, due to globalization and cloud services, which are often hosted in different markets from the point of consumption. Organizations’ appetite for more bandwidth shows no signs of diminishing, with video and big data, coupled with IT centralization, as the primary drivers. Reliability and performance control are growing in importance as business processes become ever more IT-dependent; in addition, IT architectures (such as thin client computing) place ever greater reliance on the network.”

Click here to view the complete report.

For more information on Sprint’s comprehensive portfolio of wireline and cloud solutions, visit www.sprint.com/convergence or contact your Sprint account team. To join in the latest discussions and learn more about business solutions available through convergence, visit the Seamless Enterprise at www.seamlessenterprise.com.

About the Gartner Magic Quadrant

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 55 million customers at the end of 2012 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. The American Customer Satisfaction Index rated Sprint No. 1 among all national carriers in customer satisfaction and most improved, across all 47 industries, during the last four years. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 3 in both its 2011 and 2012 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation’s greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.

¹ Gartner, “Magic Quadrant for Global Network Service Providers”, Neil Rickard and Robert F Mason, March 26, 2013.