Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Lauer says Sprint PCS’ Ready Link service will equal Verizon PTT offering

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 02:01:56 -0400

Lauer says Sprint PCS’ Ready Link service will equal Verizon PTT offering

by Dan Meyer
Sept. 09, 2003

Sprint PCS president Len Lauer said the carrier expects its upcoming Ready Link
push-to-talk service will be competitive with Verizon Wireless’s current offering,
though would still fall short of the sub-one-second call latency provided by
Nextel Communications Inc. Direct Connect service.

“I feel fairly good about where we are in our push-to-talk,” Lauer said at a
Morgan Stanley investor conference in Boston. “I think we’ll have a competitive
product compared with Verizon’s.”

Despite the greater latency compared with Nextel’s service, Lauer added that
Sprint PCS would provide other advantages including a variety of push-to-talk
handsets.

Lauer also noted that Sprint PCS was looking at acquiring some wireless licenses
from Qwest Communications International Inc., which announced last month plans to
migrate its nearly 1 million subscribers to Sprint PCS’ network by early next
year, but added that he did not expect a large deal.

“There are some areas where it would help us a little bit from a fill-in
standpoint, but I wouldn’t see us as an overall big buyer of the assets,” Lauer
said.

Qwest currently controls a number of 10-megahertz spectrum licenses in a number of
western and Midwest markets and has said it plans to sell its wireless
infrastructure following the transition of its customers to Sprint PCS’ network.

Lauer added that he felt Sprint PCS would gain a limited number of new customers
as the result of the wireless local number portability mandate that is scheduled
to be implemented Nov. 24 despite analysts concerns that the carrier’s sub-par
customer service would make the carrier a net customer loser.

Lauer noted that Sprint PCS has been making strides in customer service,
highlighted by the carrier’s 2.4-percent second-quarter customer churn result that
was near the industry average.

“We believe we will be a smaller net winner out of this. I don’t think we’ll be a
large winner; I don’t think we’ll be a large loser,” Lauer said.

Source: http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=15019

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/