Strategic History of Sprint

Over the past two weeks we’ve taken a tour of the history of telecom innovator Sprint, from its humble beginnings in small town Kansas to its final merger into global giant T-Mobile. We’ve examined the different stages along the way through a strategic lens. This article is intended to tie the whole series together into one timeline. Entries below are linked to the articles that tell the stories.

1899 Brown Telephone Company formed to provide telephone service in and around Abilene, Kansas

1911 Brown consolidated with three other independent local telephone companies as United Telephone

1920s United acquired all or parts of 68 water, electric, and telephone companies and renamed itself United Telephone & Electric

1938 Company reorganized and renamed United Utilities

1970 Southern Pacific Railroad formed a division to offer private-line communications services using facilities along their rail rights-of-way

1972 United sold off water and electric operations and renamed as United Telecommunications

1974 U.S. Telephone incorporated in Dallas as an AT&T reseller. By 1984 it would become the 5th largest long distance company.

1976 Southern’s system had become the first AT&T competitor offering private-line services coast-to-coast and called the service Southern PRIvate Network Telecommunications (SPRINT)

1978 Federal Court ruling allowed competition with AT&T for long distance calls

1983 GTE acquired SPRINT from Southern Pacific Railroad to strengthen its ability to sell long distance services and renamed the business GTE Sprint

1984 The breakup of AT&T completed, creating 7 Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) which must provide equal access for all AT&T competitors

1984 United acquired U.S. Telephone and renamed it US Telecom

1984 US Telecom announced plans to build the first nationwide all-digital fiber optic network (FON)

1986 United and GTE announced a 50–50 joint venture merging US Telecom and GTE Sprint to form US Sprint

1992 United bought out GTE and other shareholders to take control of US Sprint, changed the name of the entire company to Sprint, and changed its stock symbol from UT to FON

1992 United acquired Centel, growing its local business by 40% and becoming the 9th largest cellular company in the U.S.

1995 Sprint, in partnership with three cable operators, won PCS wireless licenses for $2.2 billion and began building a $10 billion nationwide network

1999 Sprint created the PCS tracking stock for the wireless business and bought out the cable partners

2000 Regulators blocked MCI Worldcom acquisition of Sprint

2003 Sprint began “Transformation” to OneSprint, shifting from divisions based on product (local, long distance, wireless) to customer (consumer, business, local consumer)

2004 Sprint recombined PCS and FON stocks

2004 Sprint and Nextel announced merger which was completed the following year

2006 Sprint Nextel spun off local telephone operations as Embarq

2008 Sprint Nextel contributed 4G spectrum and Google, Intel, and 3 cable operators contributed $3.2 billion to create new Clearwire 4G wireless operator with Sprint owning 51%

2009 Sprint Nextel acquired Virgin Mobile

2013 Sprint shut down the Nextel iDEN network

2013 SoftBank acquired 72% ownership in Sprint, Sprint acquired remainder of Clearwire

2014 Regulators opposed Sprint acquisition of T-Mobile

2019 T-Mobile gained regulatory approval to acquire Sprint

2020 T-Mobile and Sprint won a court case to gain final approval and the acquisition was completed