The new solution will include wireless, wireline, security and IoT offerings over Sprint’s secure network, leveraging Sprint’s 30 years of experience in the sector.
Commenting on the announcement, Michael Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a Sprint board member, said: "It's exciting to see Sprint be more aggressive in this space. The company is a great American brand with decades of experience serving the government and will bring added value and innovation to many government organizations and agencies. I'm proud to support efforts that bring a diversified portfolio back to Sprint Business."
Leading the new initiative is Chris Felix who has recently been named as Sprint vice president of Government Solutions.
"Sprint is a very motivated and creative force in the telecommunications industry, with an outstanding focus on delivering the best possible experiences for its customers and employees," said Felix. "My complete focus will be on building a world-class organization that will serve the federal and public sector customer by providing the most creative and advanced, mission critical, converged telecomm solutions possible.
Chris assumes the role with over 27 years’ experience in the telecommunications industry, including serving the federal government and leading federal government sales and operations for a competitor.
"We are very excited to serve the federal and public sector space with a proven leader like Chris," added Jan Geldmacher, president of Sprint Business. "He has the experience and expertise to fully leverage all the resources and assets Sprint has in place to bring truly innovative, integrated solutions that will help the federal government serve our country. From our network to our customizable solutions to our long list of technology collaborators, including our parent company SoftBank, we are eminently prepared to connect America."
Included in the wireless, wireline and IoT solutions hat Sprint will offer to the federal and public sector are:
Mobility, by bringing increased flexibility and agility to federal employees through their smartphones and other devices.
Smart buildings, through the use of Sprint IoT solutions, including current sensor technology, users will be able to not only reduce heating and air conditioning costs in federal buildings, but they help reap significant environmental benefits because of reduced power consumption. These sensors can measure electricity, motion, pressure and temperature; plus users can apply artificial intelligence to adapt to the data.
Next there’s Fleet and asset tracking, using it Sprint can help the federal government fleets of non-military vehicles using sensor technology. Sensors in vehicles can detect the vehicle's location, speed, direction of travel, fuel usage, idling times, and how the vehicle is being driven.
Mobile forms, helping the federal government migrate to electronic forms completed via mobile devices.
And lastly through the Cloud, the Sprint network will enhance security of cloud-based computing and communications.
The new portfolio of federal and public services will be enhanced by Sprint’s relationship with the SoftBank Group. OneWeb, the satellite-based service provider and for which Softbank is an investor, uses low-orbit satellites to provide wide coverage to all the technologies that leverage sensors, big data and communications.
In addition, ARM Holdings, which is owned by SoftBank, has the intellectual property for a chip design that continues to get smaller and more secure, and it can be part of any connected device, particularly sensors, of which there will be more than a trillion operating worldwide within a decade, according to Geldmacher.
"Everything that can be connected will be connected," Geldmacher said. "That gives the federal government and public sector agencies more opportunities than ever before to provide a higher level of accessibility, service and information to our citizens, and Sprint is primed to facilitate that."