Sprint boosts wireless data services

Sprint announced last week at CTIA Wireless 2005 that it's beefing up its wireless services for business users.

The carrier launched its Extended Workplace remote access platform. Sprint briefly talked about the service earlier this month. Extended Workplace offers business users a secure platform to access their corporate VPNs via Sprint's PCS Vision wireless data service, dial-up or Wi-Fi.

The carrier teamed with service provider Fiberlink, which also offers secure remote-access services to business users, to develop a single, secure client that lets users see all their access options as they travel around the globe.

PCS Vision is available across the U.S., and Sprint has a network of 14,000 Wi-Fi hot spots.

Although the service doesn't include wired Ethernet locations such as those offered with remote-access services from competitors AT&T and MCI, there will be future releases of Extended Workplace that likely will include additional access options, says Barry Tishgart, senior director of product management at Sprint.

The service is available for $120 per month, per user, for unlimited PCS Vision and Wi-Fi access. While the plan includes dial-up, users pay for that service based on how much they use. Users will pay 35 cents per hour for local dial-up, $2.95 per hour for toll-free dial-up and $1.40 per hour for domestic roaming off of Sprint's network.

First wireless data SLA

Sprint also announced at the show the first wireless data service-level agreement (SLA).

Last summer Sprint became the first wireless service provider to offer an SLA for its mobile voice services for business customers.

Sprint's wireless data SLA guarantees 99.5% network availability, and that wireless data blocks will be less than 2% and wireless data drops will be less than 1%.

If the carrier misses these, metrics users are entitled to a 10% credit of their wireless data monthly recurring charge. In other words, if a company pays $1,000 per month for all of its wireless data services it will receive a $100 credit.

The credits are not proactive. Users must log on to a secure Sprint Web portal to view the carrier's monthly network performance statistics. If Sprint didn't meet its SLA, the user then has to request a credit.

"It's not the type of feature that's going to get customers to sign deals," says Bob Egan, president of consulting firm Mobile Competency. But more business users interested in Sprint services might call the carrier to get information, he says.

One drawback of the SLA is that users are required to have someone internally manage and monitor it, Egan says. Every month it's that person's responsibility to check the Web site, request a credit from Sprint if necessary and follow up on those requests.

"It requires resources that some users may not have," he says.

Sprint's Tishgart points out that this is Sprint's first wireless data SLA and that it plans to continue to improve on the particulars of the guarantee.

The carrier also announced the general availability of its Sprint Managed Mobility Service (DocFinder: 6337). SMMS is a management tool that provides rate optimization, over-the-air software upgrades, security features and asset management features.