Sprint Nextel and Boost prepaid Reboost.
As the name suggest – Sprint Nextel is really the story of two companies who have merged to create another US based telecom giant. Sprint Nextel is the third largest US based wireless telecommunication network. It has a Tier 1 status which means that it forms part of the Internet back bone infrastructure. In terms of the internet – this is a sign that they are a massive, invaluable player in terms of driving huge amounts of data through their pipelines.
Lets dial the clock back to another time – 1899.This was the year that Sprint founder Cleyson Brown set up shop. His Brown telephone company competed directly with Bell who was the state monopoly back then. Business is a rollercoaster ride and after many ups and some downs, Brown's hard work and vision set the company on the road to become the nation's biggest independent telephone provider.
Nextel on the other hand was created as recently as 1987 by Morgan O Brien. Its original name was FleetCall but was subsequently changes to Nextel in 1993.In all great business stories there are people who through their vision create competitive advantages. For Nextel, that was Craig McCaw who in 1995 bought a sizeable chunk of the company. McCaw brought with him wireless expertise that would set Nextel on track to becoming a dominant player within the wireless sector. Through the vision of Mccaw and others on the executive team Nextel started to innovate. They were the first company to establish GPRS and were the first wireless company to establish and market unlimited calling plans to its customers. Unlimited calling plans to this day are hugely popular and heavily marketed across all carriers.
So when in 2004 the two companies announced a merger the telecom world paid attention. It was a marriage between pioneers in both fixed line and wireless that would lean on each others expertise to create synergies and enhanced product offerings to its now massive customer base.
Today, Sprint Nextel offers cellular phone services under both the Sprint and Nextel brands. Beyond 3G services Sprint has been investing in and rolling out 4G Wimax services. It is a big undertaking like most rolls outs at this level. Wimax allows customers to access cable broadband like speed but wirelessly – the technology is bleeding edge. From a hardware perspective Nokia, together with other handset manufacturers have expressed interest in designing and manufacturing Wimax enabled phones. Additionally Sprint has announced that it is working on its Wimax roll out with Google's input and assistance – what potential this partnership holds has created lots of excitement and time will surely tell.
AT&T's prepaid brand is called Boost. Boost offers both post paid and prepaid, pay as you go services to customers. AT&T has many MVNO deals in place with well known brands such as
TracFone, Virgin Mobile, Trumpet Mobile, Beyond Mobile, Movida Wireless, STI Mobile, Qwest Mobile, Jitterbug Wireless and Powernet Global.
Boost Mobile has its origins in the Australian market .In 2001 the brand Boost was brought to America by two entrepreneurs and they entered into a joint venture with Nextel. The brand's look and feel is positioned to a younger and hipper crowd and in some ways is similar to Virgin Mobiles style. A few years later – Nextel bought 100% of Boost Mobile USA to create a wholly owned subsidiary. Boost Mobile is powered by Sprints CDMA protocol and has approximately 4 million customers.
Boost Mobile prepaid, pay as you go offers all the benefits of prepaid billing including no credit checks, low per minute rates, flexibility, no contracts and in Boost Mobile case no activation fee.
Their prepaid rate plan is competitive – some highlights include:
* National cell rates (day calls) – 20 cents per minutes
* Nights and weekends – 10 cents per minute
* Boost Mobile to Mobile – 10 cents per minute incl calls to Sprint and Nextel clients
* Text messaging – 10 cents to send but free to receive
* Picture messaging – 25 cents
* Audio Messaging – 25 cents
* Nationwide Boost Walkie Talkie - $1 per day unlimited use
* Voice mail, caller ID included for free
Boost Mobile offer prepaid, pay as you go customers the option to recharge their prepaid minutes online . They have called it re-boost and to visit the page click here:
Enhanced content
Boost Mobile has a reputation for being on the cutting edge of mobile entertainment content including ringtones, wall paper, games and add on feature such as weather info and socializing.
