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With initial market launches already in its rearview mirror, Sprint Broadband Wireless Group is stepping on the marketing gas for its high-speed access service.
The Sprint Corp. unit recently added a raft of major markets for the multipoint, multichannel distribution service and, in contrast with last year's inaugural rollouts, is going well beyond the relatively sedate marketing campaigns and Web-oriented pitches that characterized those early efforts.
Sprint's marketing effort in 2000 was low key, with only a small amount of newspaper advertising in Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., and Denver markets during in the fourth quarter.
"We let the demand come to us through the Web," says Evan Conway, Sprint Broadband's vice president of marketing. Starting this quarter, "we will be going out aggressively through print, radio and direct mail."
Sprint, which initially launched the service last May in Phoenix, is testing a variety of pricing plans and marketing channels and will rely on a mix of Web site sales, direct and retail marketing, as it has in the past for its Sprint PCS and long-distance products.
So far, the company says, responses have been good from kiosks in Sprint PCS stores in three cities and from tests with Circuit City and Best Buy stores. Sprint Broadband also expects to be in smaller retailers and wireless stores in some markets.
This month the company planned print and direct mail campaigns for the service, which uses the old "wireless cable" spectrum at about 2.5 GHz to provide a last mile, broadband data link with downstream capability of up to 30 megabits per second. Sprint Broadband also is targeting Sprint Corp.'s existing 10 million wireless phone customers and another 10 million long-distance customers.
So far the company has signed up more than 17,000 customers, mostly in Phoenix and Tucson. Conway says Sprint has been "amazed" at the response generated by its Web site, www.sprintbroadband.com, which is a cheap distribution channel that hits the kind of customers it's looking for.
"People are actively searching out high-speed Internet," Conway says. "Ninety-nine percent of the people who are signing up already have dial-up connection of some sort."
Eric Rasmussen of industry consultant TeleChoice Inc. calls Sprint the leader in terms of fixed wireless broadband customers, an increasingly crowded field featuring another MMDS provider with national ambitions-Worldcom Inc.-and a variety focused on niche markets, such as Nucentrix Broadband Networks Inc., which plans to roll out service this year in second-and third-tier cities in Texas and the Midwest.
Rasmussen says marketing of the new service can be problematic, noting that when AT&T began marketing its Broadband Wireless service in Dallas, the company "had so many calls that most people's experience ended up being terrible."
While Kansas City-based Sprint didn't meet its original goal of launching fixed wireless broadband in 20 markets in 2000, it has in recent months launched in Colorado Springs, Colo.; Denver; Houston; Wichita, Kan.; San Jose, Calif.; San Francisco and Detroit (for business customers only). On tap are launches in Oklahoma City; Fresno, Calif.; and Melbourne, Fla.
Sprint is positioning Broadband Direct as a mass-market offering that's "a better Internet experience" and cheaper than having to install a second phone line for dial-up access, Conway says.
The carrier also is relying on availability to differentiate Sprint Broadband from cable modems and digital subscriber line (DSL) offerings. While cable customers require upgraded cable systems to get two-way broadband Internet access and DSL customers must be within about three miles of a telco central office, Sprint says its service is available to anyone with line-of-sight access and within a 35-mile radius of Sprint's base station.
By controlling both access and the network, Sprint also does not have the coordination problems that have plagued the CLECs that rely on incumbent carriers to provision phone lines. Sprint has its own employees in every city where fixed wireless will be offered, and can control those problems better because "everybody reports to us," Conway says.
Additionally, Sprint signed up relationships with five outside vendors that can provide additional staffing to meet demand. In San Jose, for example, demand "took off faster than we expected," Conway says. Within 30 days, however, the installation wait was down to less than two weeks. It now may be under a week, along with the rest of the new markets, he adds.
Sprint's decision to opt for a more limited rollout until second-generation two-way MMDS technology becomes available later this year also means the company has "more capacity in the back office than we need right now," he says.
So-called second-generation technology, which offers improvements in line-of-sight requirements, and greater capacity that would enable telephony and higher data speeds, is expected to begin appearing late in 2001.
Sprint is charging residential customers about $45 a month for wireless access and ISP service. Equipment costs range from $99 to $299, depending on the length of service contract, and Sprint currently is waiving its $299 installation fee. The company also is test-bundling the service with other Sprint products, such as cheap long distance calling.
Besides marketing to residential targets, Sprint is testing direct mail campaigns to small- and medium-sized businesses that are unable to get either cable modems or DSL. Service to business customers costs about $150 a month for connecting up to five computers. Equipment costs are comparable to those for consumers although installation charges do apply.
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