Sprint Outsources Day2Day Net Service to Ericsson - Employees Keep Jobs

Sprint announced a unique wireless and wireline network services outsourcing agreement with Ericsson.

The seven-year agreement with Ericsson expands Ericsson's network services business in North America. The agreement, with an option for renewal, will result in payments for services valued at between $4.5 billion and $5 billion (USD) over the seven-year term of the contract.

The deal will have about 6,000 Sprint employees to begin performing their network functions as Ericsson employees sometime in the 3rd quarter.

How the Ericsson Network Advantage Will Work:

• Sprint retains full ownership and control of its network assets, and solely owns network strategy and investment decisions.
• Customers will continue to work directly with Sprint employees as their primary contact, as Sprint retains full control of the customer experience, customer technical support and services review.
• Sprint retains technology and vendor selections.
• Ericsson assumes responsibility for the day-to-day services, provisioning and maintenance for the Sprint-owned CDMA, iDEN and wireline networks.
• Ericsson will optimize Sprint's multi-vendor inventory of assets such as spare parts and transmission equipment, and provide processes and tools for managing the national network platforms and operational support systems.
• The transferred employees will become part of Ericsson Services Inc., a wholly-owned Ericsson subsidiary based in Overland Park, KS, a move that retains jobs in the United States. No force reductions are currently contemplated as a result of this agreement.

Sprint expects to immediately benefit from Ericsson's leadership and best-in-class economies of scale in network services.