Wireless carrier Sprint has lost million of subscribers in the past year despite chief executive Dan Hesse’s effort to turn the company around. On the other hand, the carrier’s wholesale subscriber base has increased 27 percent to 8.1 million since 2006. While wholesale subscriptions only account for about 16 percent of its total subscriber base of 49.3 million and 3 percent of its overall revenue, Sprint is taking advantage of its huge infrastructure and hoping to advance its wholesale consumer base this year.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Sprint is currently in talks with GPS manufacturer Garmin, Eastman Kodak and storage hardware maker SanDisk to deliver wireless service for their products. Also, I was surprised to find out the Sprint delivers wireless access for Amazon’s Kindle e-reader products.
In terms of the potential Garmin deal, this would hint at something other than the upcoming Garmin-Asus nuviphone line. I’m guessing Garmin is looking to tie in its connected devices offering real-time traffic updates and internet access to the Sprint network. Both companies already have an established relationship related to its spun-off WiMAX unit.
Sprint will also provides wireless connectivity for Ford Sync dashboards in its 2009 and possibly 2010 line. These products have navigational capabilities.
Verizon Wireless and AT&T are also looking to expand their respective wholesale subscriptions. AT&T’s “emerging devices” unit that launched last fall is working on a GPS watch for tracking Alzheimer’s patients, while Verizon has already certified 35 products for its “open” network iniative including a GPS tracking bracelet for prisoners and a truck monitoring device probably used for fleet management.
