Sprint (NYSE: S) inked a multi-year deal with LTE chipset, SIM card and service provisioning specialist Gemalto to extend their relationship for Gemalto to help manage Sprint's LTE deployments. Sprint and Gemalto have worked together on LTE deployments since May 2012, shortly before Sprint launched LTE in July of that year.
Sprint will use Gemalto's Allynis Advanced Over-the-Air (AOTA) platform to facilitate LTE service activations and to manage its multi-band LTE network. Sprint is using the 800 MHz, 1900 MHz and 2.5 GHz bands for its LTE network. Gemalto said the platform will speed up service provisioning for new devices and provide seamless technical updates and software improvements.
Gemalto said its solution-as-a-service platform will help Sprint more easily provision LTE and deploy service to customers. Gemalto said the platform will enable Sprint to reduce its need for expensive installations and help support Internet of Things applications. That's particularly helpful as Sprint prepares to massively densify its network through the deployment of tens of thousands of small cells, many of them on the 2.5 GHz band, as it seeks to boost capacity and coverage.
"Our over-the-air technology currently enables 240 operators worldwide and with increased demands for connectivity, Sprint and many others are opting to migrate to our more advanced and robust Advanced OTA platform," Sebastien Cano, president of North America at Gemalto, said in a statement. "Gemalto's highly developed roadmap for delivering AOTA services worldwide is ideal for any operator interested in evolving to next generation networks or expanding 4G LTE services."
For more:
- see this release
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