The city of Chicago has signed a $12m agreement with Sprint to provide wireless services for five more years. The contract calls for Sprint to provide wireless services to all government departments including voice and data services, Sprint 4G technology, and a continuance of its Nextel Direct Connect.
In 2003, the Department of Buildings began using Xora GPS TimeTrack, running on GPS-enabled Nextel handsets. The company claims that the application enabled supervisors to quickly locate and manage field building inspectors, resulting in improved staff communications and better customer service. Before deploying the Xora application, the city was already using Nextel Direct Connect for back office communications.
Paget Alves, president of the business markets group of Sprint, said: “The city of Chicago and Sprint have an enduring partnership that has been put to the test over the past 10 years. This new contract reinforces Sprint’s pledge to Public Sector customers everywhere who want innovative, industry-leading solutions for attaining operational efficiency and workforce mobility in a cost-effective way.”
Sprint is adding Chicago to its existing list of metro areas using its service. Sprint serves the city of Chicago through its newly-formed Business Markets Group (BMG). BMG delivers wireless, wireline and converged offerings for companies. The company said that renewing the wireless services contract will help the government entities work even more efficiently while cutting costs.
