Sprint Nextel’s recent disappointing results have raised questions, especially from more short termist investors, over its Pivot venture with four major cablecos, as well as the cost of its WiMAX build-out in 2.5GHz. During the operator’s second quarter earnings call last week, Sprint CEO Gary Forsee admitted that the pace of the roll-out of Pivot services ‘ which add a mobile element to the cablecos’ bundle to create a quad play ‘ was so far ‘disappointing’.
Forsee blamed the time needed to ‘weave the service into the cable fabric’, including the call centers and the points of sale, and said there was no “one-size-fits-all approach” that would work for all four cablecos and all their geographical markets.
“It took us longer’ because we spent time on the back office, to get that right, before we took it into the marketplace. At this stage, there’s still some system work to be done to speed up that activation,” he said.
Forsee said the Pivot partners have introduced the service in 20 markets, and he expects that to double at least by year end. Sprint and its cable partners have yet to disclose Pivot subscriber figures.