Friday, May 2, 2008

Sprint


Sprint Fiber Optics Network (FON) is the IP services branch of parent company Sprint Nextel. Based in Overland Park, Kansas, Sprint has been in existence for more than a century and has had an international presence for more than 25 years running. The whole company is currently lead by Paul Saleh and is staffed by 60,000+ employees.

Sprint offers businesses a huge variety of IP services that usually tap directly into the nearest node which include: T1, DSL, OC lines, private lines, network services, virtual LAN services, and due to their merger with Nextel also offer various data and voice services.

Domestically, they have one of the largest networks only being smaller in comparison to companies such as Verizon and MCI. Their network backbone operates on speeds up to OC48 and OC192. Sprint also has a worldwide presence in regions such as European, Asian Pacific, South American, and availability in more than a 100 other countries.

Sprint has a solid SLA that they typically do not violate. It promises in the event they fail to meet their 95%+ On/Off Network availability, they will issue appropriate credit. They also promise 4hrs to restore service, 30-45 days on provisioning, 99.9% data delivery, latency of less than 55ms, and at least 0.3% packet loss.

They have a 1:1 subscription, thus no oversubscription making it a reliable network. Their T1 lines are clear channel lines; none of which are burstable, either. They are not quite as good as Verizon MCI because their network is smaller, so they don’t have as much peering available.

They are also good when supporting other ISPs so they can be relied upon on a wholesale level to provide good bandwidth. In fact, they support wholesalers. The network isn’t international, but it’s a very good domestic one. Sprint provides headache-free billing with a reliable service. Service quality may not be coordinated at all times, but once the service is up and running, customers should find little to no problems on the most part. This is a solid domestic choice.

The Good: Solid network, good 24/7 tech support with knowledgeable techs, good customer service, good billing service, no hidden fees they are up front about everything

The Bad: Expensive costs for services

The Bottom Line: An overall great choice for services as they have a solid network and good support however it all comes bundled at high prices.

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