Comments on: GSA rings Sprint with bad news

By: Verizon to Power Qwest Wireless - GigaOM

Verizon to Power Qwest Wireless - GigaOM — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:02:02 +0000

[...] When I asked Qwest CEO Ed Mueller back in March if they would buy a wireless operator like Sprint, his answer was no. “All we want to do is partner with a national wireless player where we can rebrand and remarket their service to our customer base. We are ambivalent about the technology but we want a partner with retail presence,” he had added. The quid pro quo of the deal: Verizon and Qwest will partner up and bid for government contracts, a very lucrative business indeed. [...]

By: Aravind

Aravind — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 03:33:51 +0000

Good news for Bells. A blip in the declining telecom revenues for few years but strange are the ways of US Government in deciding the contract terms. How does Qwest even qualify among At&T and Verizon?

By: gz

gz — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 20:55:18 +0000

Possible that Sprint strategically decided not to try to win this bid? I can only imagine what type of architecture will need to be built – architecture that will be obsolete as soon as it is live, w/ heavy, obsolete, expensive OSS and processes supporting it. If I was a Sprint shareholder (used to be), I’d rather have their efforts on the IP, especially wireless IP, side of the house. I say FSA is ringing the Bells w/ the bad news…

By: Ian Swanson

Ian Swanson — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 18:55:14 +0000

Sprint has a very strong foot print in the Government sector due to the large amount of IDEN direct connect users.

I find it hard to believe that the GSA did not consider the Nextel acquisition in the Sprint bid.

By: Gerard Coleman

Gerard Coleman — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 18:31:32 +0000

What with some of the most recent revelations about how this administration does business, I wonder if they (Sprint/Nextel) were "underperforming" when it came to submitting to the will of the government; for example, complying with the PATRIOT Act, etc.? I'd always assumed the GSA was independent of the White House's influence, but if the Justice Dept. has been politicized, why not the GSA?

Of course, it could also be who paid who how much and so on and so forth. Nothing is a surprise anymore, except displays of integrity and common sense.