Sprint Names Junichi Miyakawa as Technical Chief Operating Officer

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), October 31, 2014 – Sprint (NYSE:S, news, filings) announced today that Junichi Miyakawa has been named to the newly created position of Technical Chief Operating Officer, effective Nov. 1. Miyakawa is joining Sprint from SoftBank Group, where he led the company’s best-in-class network operations.

In his new role at Sprint, Miyakawa will oversee the company’s network and technology organization, including related strategy, network operations and performance. He will also lead its relationships with key network equipment vendors and will report directly to Marcelo Claure, Sprint’s Chief Executive Officer.

Miyakawa joined SoftBank BB as a Board of Director in 2003 and currently serves as Executive Vice President, Board Director & CTO for SoftBank Mobile, SoftBank BB and SoftBank Telecom. Under his direction, SoftBank emerged as a wireless market leader in Japan with a network running on the 2.5 gigahertz spectrum. This is the same slice of airwaves forming a critically important core within a strong overall spectrum portfolio supporting the Sprint network.

“Miyakawa-san transformed the SoftBank network in Japan and I’m confident that his expertise and leadership will help us do the same thing for Sprint customers,” said Claure. “We already have made substantial progress on the Sprint network and it is performing better every day. He will work directly with our network team as we continue to build out our network to take advantage of our strong and unique spectrum position.”

Chief Technology Officer Stephen Bye and John Saw Ph.D., Chief Network Officer, will continue to lead their organizations at Sprint and will report to Miyakawa. “Both Stephen and John have done an excellent job in leading our technology development and network operations and in improving our network performance. Together with Miyakawa-san, we possess outstanding network and technology leadership,” said Claure.

About Sprint:

Sprint (NYSE:S) is a communications services company that creates more and better ways to connect its customers to the things they care about most. Sprint served more than 54 million customers as of June 30, 2014 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; leading no-contract 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 as the most improved U.S. company in customer satisfaction, across all 43 industries, over the last six years. Sprint has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) North America in 2011, 2012 and 2013. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.

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