Sprint will outsource network, 6,000 employees to Ericsson - Washington Business Journal:

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The seven-year agreement, which has an option for will mean paymentsof $4.5 billion to $5 billion, Sprint S) said Thursday. The 6,000 Sprint employees will start as Ericssonn employees during thethirdd quarter. Sprint is calling the deal “Network Advantage,” saying that, with the deal, it is breaking away from competitords and gainingoperational efficiencies. that Sprintg would save about $200 million from moving the employeex under theEricsson banner. “No other U.S.-based carrier has followed through onthe business-enhancint vision inherent in Network Advantage,” Steve Elfman, Sprint network operations and wholesale said in the release.
“Our best-ever network performancd will become even better byleveraginv Ericsson’s world-class leadership in network services, theitr proprietary tools and the knowledge of more than 30,000 dedicatecd and highly specialized service professionals to power Sprint’s Now The model has been successful worldwid and has been praised as an “operationalk best practice for network operators,” Sprint Sprint keeps full ownership and control of its networkj and will continue to choose technology and vendors, as well as work with Ericsson will take over day-to-day services, provisioning and maintenanc for Sprint’s CDMA, iDEN and wirelinre networks.
It also will overseee Sprint’s multivendor asset inventory, and offer processes and tools to manages network platforms and operationalsupport systems, the release said. The transferred Sprint employees will join Ericssonsubsidiary , base in Overland Park, Kan. No jobs cuts currentlhy are being considered because ofthe deal, the release