Sprint Name Change Ideas (With Poll)

[sbolen]

Are we running two fantasy wireless leagues? One for who to acquire/how to position & brand; and another for rate plans?

 

I like to armchair QB a lot, but this is putting the cart so far in front of the horse...

[WiWavelength]

Are we running two fantasy wireless leagues? One for who to acquire/how to position & brand; and another for rate plans?

 

I like to armchair QB a lot, but this is putting the cart so far in front of the horse...

 

What?  Did you not get Arysyn's Wireless Operator Fantasy League invite?  Check your spam folder.  You need to get with it, man.  Our draft is this weekend.

 

AJ

[sbolen]

What? Did you not get Arysyn's Wireless Operator Fantasy League invite? Check your spam folder. You need to get with it, man. Our draft is this weekend.

 

AJ

Just my luck ... I'll end up spending a first round pick on Forsee because of auto draft.

[ITK79]

For some strange reason all this seems very familiar. Wasn't this same discussion being had around this time last year?

[WiWavelength]

Bring back Houston Cellular!

 

Houston Cellular -- like LA Cellular -- has an interesting and tortuous (that means twisted, not "torturous," by the way) history.  It was a Cellular "A side" operator, such that it held the Cellular 850 MHz A block, which typically went to non wireline companies, often in partnerships.

 

The Cellular B block or "B side" in Houston went to GTE, which became VZW.  I actually have spent many a night in Houston, but I do not know enough about the utilities there to say that GTE was the wireline provider at the time.  However, that was the trend -- the wireline provider got the Cellular B block.  It is interesting because Houston is squarely within the former SBC's RBOC overall territory, yet SBC did not get that Cellular B Block.  So, SBC users in Houston roamed on GTE.

 

In this case, Houston Cellular was a partnership between BellSouth and AT&TWS.  Tech specs were AMPS and TDMA -- the same as most other "A-side" markets of this type.  Later, AT&TWS exited the partnership, leaving it to BellSouth, as AT&TWS decided to reenter the market on its own via PCS 1900 MHz that PrimeCo had to divest -- because of overlap in the multipart VZW merger.  Ultimately, though, Houston Cellular, which became Cingular, and AT&TWS' reemergence both ended up as AT&T in the fallout from the Cingular-AT&TWS, SBC-BellSouth, SBC-AT&T mergers and SBC rebrand to AT&T.

 

And thus concludes your S4GRU Biography special.  Goodnight.

 

 

AJ

[Josh]

For some strange reason all this seems very familiar. Wasn't this same discussion being had around this time last year?

 

It has been proposed several times, and though they won't (and probably don't need to) change the name unless softbank fails and sells out... which would be more usual. 

 

This was more just speculation by us nerds of what would make sense if something were to change. 

[ITK79]

I get that it just seemed strange that almost a year ago it was being thrown around because Sprint needed to be ditched for the same image issues.

 

I am a little surprised that so many people agree on Spark since that would be linked so closely with Sprint already.

 

Whatever happened to the idea for renaming the company Spank?

[WiWavelength]

Whatever happened to the idea for renaming the company Spank?

 

Spank?  It might work.  For many of those abusing "unlimited" data, that is what they are doing to their monkey -- downloading or streaming porn.

 

AJ

[Arysyn]

What? Did you not get Arysyn's Wireless Operator Fantasy League invite? Check your spam folder. You need to get with it, man. Our draft is this weekend.

 

AJ

That sounds like a great idea! ☺

Although, I did mean for this thread to be more serious than many of my posts are, which I admit are a bit fantasy-leaning. Yet, its not a bad idea to share views on wireless stuff both reality and fantasy, as it is both a way to learn how things are and how fellow members view how things ought to be.

 

Still, I really did mean for this thread to be a reality-based serious discussion, as I was surprised by the WSJ article and took it as a topic that opens up all possibilities for Sprint, including discussions of it. Naming really shouldn't be a major issue, and I think the name of Sprint is just fine. Plus, the company has a lot of good history with that name.

 

However, there is the issue of Sprint's reputation many seem to think is attached to that name, including bad history that may not go away by keeping that name, no matter how good the network becomes. At least, that is what I've been reading from pmany people both pro and anti Sprint. Those who are supporters of Sprint and for a name change often use the example of how much better Sprint is now in contrast to several years ago. Yet, they say that the reputation is still bad.

 

I'm hoping the best for Sprint either way. I also want to see the best for Softbank's continuance of ownership of Sprint, as long as they are serious about financing Sprint's network upgrades. That appears to be in question currently, so its nice to think about these options of helping Sprint as something/anything to be positive about Sprint and Softbank in this.

[WiWavelength]

To bring this back to serious discussion, any rebrand does not necessarily have to include the word "cellular," "wireless," "mobile," or "mobility."  Think of Sprint's history -- even when the wireless arm was known as "Sprint PCS," its nomenclature did not use any of those four aforementioned terms.

 

For another example, prior to the Cingular-AT&TWS merger over a decade ago, AT&TWS had been spun off from the parent company and had a limited amount of time to continue to use the AT&T name/logo.  As some of you old fogies like me may remember, AT&TWS launched the "mlife" media campaign.  Part of that was related to its investment from NTT DoCoMo -- that swayed AT&TWS away from TDMA, did not go to the prevailing thought of CDMA2000, and instead went to GSM/W-CDMA.

 

Absent revelations from insiders, we may never know for sure.  But conjecture is that AT&TWS was prepping itself as an independent company to be rebranded "mlife" -- or maybe just "m."  Along the same lines, Hutchison Whampoa has operated its non 2G network in the UK as branded simply "3" for over a decade, too.

 

AJ

[Yuhfhrh]

How about Sprint BRS?

 

Personally I'm fond of Softbank, but I understand it doesn't sound cellular at all.

[Arysyn]

Some of these cell phone carriers had really bad sounding names, at least in my opinion.

 

I really disliked the name Cingular. Same with Prime Co. and U.S. Cellular, though fof a different reason than Cingular, as they were too basic and bland sounding names while Cingular just was too odd sounding to me. Voice Stream and Nextel was okay sounding to me, as is T-Mobile and Sprint. I understand the naming reasons for AT&T with its history. Verizon is alright too. Although, none of the names are striking to me.

 

Even though I'm not a fan of Comcast, I do really like the name Xfinity. That is a more striking name to me than all of the others, though the best of them I'd say is Sprint.

[Calvin200]

Softbank would be the worst name ever.  I can't even believe more than one person suggested it.   OK, maybe not the worst name.  "No Signal Wireless"  would be worse.  

[MacinJosh]

Some of these cell phone carriers had really bad sounding names, at least in my opinion.

 

I really disliked the name Cingular. Same with Prime Co. and U.S. Cellular, though fof a different reason than Cingular, as they were too basic and bland sounding names while Cingular just was too odd sounding to me. Voice Stream and Nextel was okay sounding to me, as is T-Mobile and Sprint. I understand the naming reasons for AT&T with its history. Verizon is alright too. Although, none of the names are striking to me.

 

Even though I'm not a fan of Comcast, I do really like the name Xfinity. That is a more striking name to me than all of the others, though the best of them I'd say is Sprint.

Cingular was a good name. It made itself stand out in an individualist way while the only other options were kinda off, like Voicestream wireless, or gte mobile, or even omnipoint. Cingular was also a conglomeration of many Rboc cellular companies, and showed how together they became under one brand image. Frankly, SBC would have done well to have taken the Cingular name to their landline division and named it Cingular Telecommunications instead of taking on the dreaded AT&T name (Ma Bell). Many know that name all too well and steer clear because of it.

 

 

Sent from Josh's iPhone 6+ using Tapatalk

[joshuam]

It's been awhile... I remember years ago, Radio Shack exclusively sold "Cellular One" service in Maryland. With the Sprint Shack now a thing...revive Cell One?

 

I remember when Bell Atlantic became VZW years ago. Sprint seems to be one of the oldest names still in use?

 

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

[tybo31316]

Maybe they should drop Sprint and bring back Nextel. [emoji6] [emoji6] [emoji6] [emoji6]

 

Sent from my Nexus 6

[AppleFanBoy]

How about Sprintelmax.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Arysyn]

It's been awhile... I remember years ago, Radio Shack exclusively sold "Cellular One" service in Maryland. With the Sprint Shack now a thing...revive Cell One?

 

I remember when Bell Atlantic became VZW years ago. Sprint seems to be one of the oldest names still in use?

 

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

Hi Joshua,

 

Your post gave me an idea. Since Sprint has such a large presence in Radio Shack, Sprint could really try to revive the Radio Shack brand by doing something I suggested on S4GRU awhile back, by integrating Radio Shack items in Sprint stores, but also rename the mobile company to Radio Mobile or possibly keep the Sprint name by calling the stores Radio Shack by Sprint and the mobile company as Radio Shack Mobile by Sprint.

 

Either way, I'd still hope that the Sprint name would be adopted in some form by Softbank in Japan. Although, I'm not sure about Radio Shack in Japan. However, I'd be interested in seeing how it would work though.

[JeffDTD]

If theyre willing to spend the money, brand awareness can be built around any naming scheme, regardless of its initial appeal.

 

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[caspar347]

Speculation is always fun, so I'll go ahead and drop my thoughts:

Ideally, they don't need to rebrand. IMHO the Sprint name is worth salvaging. I think I've stated that every time this discussion comes up. But at this point I'm not sure how much longer it will be salvageable.

 

If they have to rebrand, Spark Mobile or even just Spark sounds good to me.

[Fraydog]

Spark Mobile? In some ways I like that name better than SoftBank.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Arysyn]

This is meant to be an official tally of opinion among S4GRU members on this issue. Please vote!

[Arysyn]

I voted for Spark Mobile, but it was close between that and keeping the Sprint name, because while I'd like for Softbank to adopt the Sprint name in Japan when the Sprint name in the U.S. improves, its still iffy if Softbank will continue owning Sprint. If Softbank takes more interest in Sprint, then I'll change my vote to keeping the Sprint name.

 

In the meantime though, I'm going for Spark Mobile. It sounds good and will be a great new start for Sprint's bright future. Perhaps even Softbank would adopt that name too in Japan.

[JimBob]

I would support a name change if there was a merger or buyout.  Otherwise, keep the name Sprint.  T-Mobile did not need a name change to turn around.

[Nickel]

Spank?  It might work.  For many of those abusing "unlimited" data, that is what they are doing to their monkey -- downloading or streaming porn.

 

AJ

They were going to go with SpankBank but that name is already taken.