Sprint Collaborates With Telstra for Advanced IoT Solutions

Sprint Corporation S recently announced that it has inked an agreement with Telstra Corporation Limited TLSYY to deploy its IoT platform, Curiosity, to Australian customers. Telstra is a leading Australian telecommunications provider. The partnership is likely to boost Sprint’s international footprint and virtualization technology with a diversified portfolio of innovative products and solutions to serve specific enterprise requirements across the country.

Designed specifically for latency sensitive applications, Curiosity is the first fully virtualized and distributed core network dedicated solely to IoT intelligence with on-demand scalability, enhanced network coverage and cost effectiveness. The technology will benefit enterprise customers with innovative services that have critical requirements like local connectivity and low latency, without the need to pass through the macro network. It has a unified architecture, which enhances data management capability, automates business processes and speeds up IoT performance for greater efficiency.

Per Statista, global IoT market revenues is expected to reach $212 billion in 2019 and is likely to hit $1.6 trillion by 2025. Aggregate worldwide IoT connected devices are expected to touch 75.44 billion by 2025, a fivefold increase from 2015.

The wireless carrier announced that the IoT platform will be showcased at CES 2020. Impressively, in an attempt to fortify the partnership, both the companies have roped in pet-oriented application development company — Wagz — to augment operations across Australia through Sprint’s Curiosity platform. Based in Portsmouth, NH, Wagz leverages best-in-class technologies like smart collars, GPS tracking, bark monitoring and smart feeding solutions to deliver a completely connected pet lifestyle. Sprint’s avant-garde IoT platform is anticipated to hit the Tasmanian country in early 2020.

With a subscriber count of 53.9 million as of Sep 30, 2019, Sprint’s strategy of balancing growth and profitability, while increasing network investments and adding digital capabilities will likely drive its financial performance. The company is continuously coming up with new ideas and solutions to help business enterprises improve relations with employees and better serve customers.

Moreover, its all-stock merger transaction with T-Mobile US, Inc. TMUS has been cleared by the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission. The combined entity is likely to accelerate the development of faster 5G wireless networks across U.S. wireless, video and broadband industries. The transaction is expected to result in $6 billion of annual cost savings. The combined company will have a strong closing balance sheet and a fully-funded business plan, with a strong foundation of secured investment grade debt at close.

Shares of Sprint have lost 18% against the industry’s growth of 12.9% in the past year. The company has been making efforts to entice customers by offering attractive promotional plans and lucrative discounts. This, in turn, has led to a high cash burn rate and heavy losses.

Sprint currently has a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

A better-ranked stock in the industry is Verizon Communications Inc. VZ, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Verizon outpaced estimates in each of the preceding four quarters, the average positive earnings surprise being 2.2%.

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