[By Staci D. Kramer] On the surface, it might sound like a fox-hen house pairing to have a top phone company exec on a key panel at cable’s National Show. Not so when it’s Sprint Nextel, the carrier determined to partner with cable operators rather than compete with them. During a brief interview following Monday’s super session, Gary Forsee, president and CEO of Sprint Nextel, talked about the company’s strategy, the Sprint Nextel-cable JV, and the future of MVNOs including Mobile ESPN and Disney Mobile.
You want it (the JV) to be very cable-centric. You don’t want people to see it as just another wireless service. How do you go about marketing it that way and how do you get it across the consumers that this isn’t the same thing?
Forsee: Sprint has been on a two-year path to reposition our company. We’re describing our company, not as a telcom carrier but a content media and entertainment distribution company in the data services business. When we spin off our local business in May, we really will be positioned to be the cable industry’s ideal partner because our company will be positioned both on providing VoIP as well as wireless services. Mobility is the natural extension … with the four companies we’re going to be in the best position of any potential partner to understand what can be delivered — and be delivered uniquely.
It’s not a matter of simply tossing wireless into the bundle, You heard Brian (Roberts) say a few minutes ago can we develop something unique? That’s why the venture has worked so hard to make sure we get the customer experience piece right and also that the new services that being developed are going to be different than simply adding it on to the bundle. If we do it that way, I think it will be very important.
When did you decide that you were not going to be in competition with cable?
Forsee: Wireless will substitute for all these services. Customers will decide if they want to cut the cord and not want a bundle. If the they do that, Sprint’s going to be positioned to provide a standalone offer. But customers may also want the unique experience… Sprint decided as we started thinking about our merger with Nextel if we could end up with a national place for our wireless to be bundled. Would that be a unique experience for us versus being local … We were in 18 states with 8 million access lines. With cable, we’ll have the ability to be truly national. We’ll have a national product name for that offer we’ll put in the bundle. That’ll be a great place for Sprint .. It will be the Comcast bundle but that name will be a national brand that also could be positioned that way.
You also partner with content providers in other ways and that’s with MVNOs. Where do you see the MVNO business going? What’s the patience curve on success for an MVNO.
Forsee: There are some content companies that have such unique content, like Disney, like ESPN. We’ve gone down that path with Virgin Mobile because of their brand cache and their ability to target youth.. There a few companies…we think can be successful because they’ll bring something unique to the customer and … they’ll expand the pie. Sprint went about this as a market extension or second-brand strategy, not just can we offload minutes of our network so it hasn’t followed a traditional wholesale model. … It’s been about expanding the market and getting a disproportionate share that Sprint otherwise couldn’t have gotten by itself.
Bringing Mobile ESPN into your stores, what kind of challenge is that and why do it?
Forsee: Again, we thought a different kind of user is going to want that kind of content, and, again, with that kind of brand strength at ESPN why not think about that expanding the pie?
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