Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Sprint PCS Pres: Push To Talk Better Than Verizon's

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 08 Sep 2003 18:22:48 -0400

Dow Jones Business News
Sprint PCS Pres: Push To Talk Better Than Verizon's
Monday September 8, 5:18 pm ET
By Christine Nuzum, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Sprint Corp. may look at some of the wireless licenses that
Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE:Q - News) has up for sale, but don't

expect any deal on a large scale.

"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,"
said Len Lauer, president of Sprint's
wireless division, speaking at a
Morgan Stanley investor conference
in Boston Monday. The conference
was closed to the media, but some
presentations were broadcast on the
Web.

Lauer said he is "pleased with the
terms" of an alliance recently
announced that allows Qwest to
resell wireless service on Sprint's
network. Sprint's wireless business is
tracked by Sprint PCS Group .

"We basically see folks that want to buy this service through Qwest as folks that
are
very loyal to Qwest that we wouldn't have been able to attract on our own," said
Lauer.

Sprint PCS still plans to roll out a "push to talk" walkie-talkie-style service to
compete
with Nextel's popular offering later this year, said Lauer.

"I feel fairly good about where we are in our 'push-to-talk'," he said. "I think
we'll have a
very competitive product compared with Verizon's."

Verizon Communications late last month introduced its version, which has been
panned
in the media and on Wall Street as inferior to Nextel Communications Inc.'s
version, due
to much longer waits for setting up the call and lags in hearing the other
speaker.

Lauer said that Sprint's service will have "a little disadvantage" on the set- up
time
compared with Nextel's but that other advantages, including the variety of
handsets
available from the company, will make up for that.

Lauer thinks Sprint will see a limited gain of net customers from "number
portability"
rules that go into effect at the end of November. The federal regulations will
require all
carriers to enable customers to keep their wireless numbers when they switch
providers. Analysts have said that the carriers with the highest customer
satisfaction
rates will gain subscribers, while those with low customer satisfaction could lose
some
of their customer base. Many see Sprint as a loser due to negative perceptions of
its
customer service.

Lauer, however, downplayed those concerns, noting that Sprint's customer turnover
is
near the average for the wireless industry.

"We believe we will be a smaller net winner out of this," he said. "I don't think
we'll be a
large winner, I don't think we'll be a large loser."

Sprint's wireline business, tracked by Sprint FON Group, has recently begun
acquiring
more corporate customers from MCI Inc., formerly WorldCom Inc. (WCOEQ) . Its
initial
market share gains from MCI lagged earlier this year, but have revived more
recently,
Lauer said.

Qwest Chief Executive Richard Notebaert said in a presentation at the same
conference Monday morning that Qwest is also gaining market share in corporate
accounts from other carriers. A presentation by AT&T Corp. Chairman and Chief
Executive David Dorman at the Monday conference was not accessible.

-By Christine Nuzum, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5172

http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/030908/1718001234_1.html

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