Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

With ‘Workplace-as-a-Service’ Bundle, Sprint Aims to Show It Means Business

For $200 per worker per month, Sprint will handle a company’s entire IT infrastructure from Internet, to voice, to corporate Wi-Fi. Cellular service is optional.

Most of Sprint’s energy since Marcelo Claure took over has focused on winning back consumers who are using a rival carrier.

With a new effort being detailed Monday, Sprint aims to show it has renewed interest in serving businesses as well.

The company is announcing a “workplace-as-a-service” offering that combines a whole host of services into one monthly bundle. For $200 per worker per month, Sprint will handle a company’s entire network, including business calling, data service, corporate Wi-Fi, management of mobile devices and collaboration and messaging services.

“We think this will become the way customers buy services,” Sprint Vice President Kevin Fitz said in an interview. While Sprint has been offering most of those services separately, as do rivals, the new bundle is designed to appeal to small and midsize businesses that don’t have big IT departments and want one-stop shopping.

The one optional component is cellular service, with Sprint acknowledging not all businesses are ready to move all their mobile phones and tablets to the carrier. Fitz said the company is offering aggressive pricing for businesses that do want Sprint mobile service, with unlimited voice, data and texting for $40 per month and tablet plans starting at $5 a month for five gigabytes of data.

Sprint is, of course, not alone in wanting business accounts. AT&T outlined a partnership with Microsoft at Mobile World Congress under which it will offer businesses the “mobile office suite” — a combination of phone and hosted email service for less than $100 per worker per month.

Fitz said that the Microsoft-AT&T service bundle offers only a portion of what Sprint does, but says it “validates that this is where the market is headed.”

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

More in Technology

Technology
The case for AI realismThe case for AI realism
Technology

AI isn’t going to be the end of the world — no matter what this documentary sometimes argues.

By Shayna Korol
Politics
OpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agendaOpenAI’s oddly socialist, wildly hypocritical new economic agenda
Politics

The AI company released a set of highly progressive policy ideas. There’s just one small problem.

By Eric Levitz
Future Perfect
Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.Human bodies aren’t ready to travel to Mars. Space medicine can help.
Future Perfect

Protecting astronauts in space — and maybe even Mars — will help transform health on Earth.

By Shayna Korol
Podcasts
The importance of space toilets, explainedThe importance of space toilets, explained
Podcast
Podcasts

Houston, we have a plumbing problem.

By Peter Balonon-Rosen and Sean Rameswaram
Technology
What happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputerWhat happened when they installed ChatGPT on a nuclear supercomputer
Technology

How they’re using AI at the lab that created the atom bomb.

By Joshua Keating
Future Perfect
Humanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious missionHumanity’s return to the moon is a deeply religious mission
Future Perfect

Space barons like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk don’t seem religious. But their quest to colonize outer space is.

By Sigal Samuel