Ethiopian Review

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), the third-largest wireless carrier in the U.S. who continues losing customers every single quarter, is at least trying to jump ahead of the competition on high-tech service offerings. The company will be expanding its WiMAX wireless internet offerings to 17 new cities by the end of 2009.

Although Sprint made large gains in its customer service rankings in a recent audit, it’s still losing customers to the competition every single quarter (and has been for over a year). Offering a high-speed internet service that blankets major cities (which was faster than those ubiquitous aircards sticking out of every business laptop these days) will eventually be a requirement all across the U.S. Sprint does have competition here, but for now it’s ahead of the game.

In addition to the large metros Sprint’s 4G wireless service will expand to this year, the company indicated that it will add Boston, Houston, New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. in 2010. The question is a big one, though: if Sprint can’t contain its customer losses, will those losses by replaced by customers looking for (and begging for) portable high-speed internet everywhere they travel and live?

Right now, most business travelers I see use pokier cellular-based internet connections if outside WiFi range. Sprint isn’t exactly hanging by a thread, but it’s not anywhere close to good enough to be bleeding customers every single quarter. A new, robust and groundbreaking high-speed internet service that’s portable should give it an edge. That is, until the competition comes around.

- by Brian White | Blogging Stocks