OVERLAND PARK, Kan. ? 04/27/2006 Sprint (NYSE: S) is building upon its success in meeting the global telecommunications needs of U.S.-based and multinational corporations with continuing enhancements to its Global MPLS VPN service. Demonstrating its leadership in the support of converged network services, Sprint has introduced the industry's first standard end-to-end MPLS VPN Service Level Agreements (SLAs) on its wholly owned global network, while expanding its international MPLS network capabilities with a series of regional partner agreements throughout 2006.

The new performance guarantees are provided at no additional charge to customers. They extend SLA coverage and reporting beyond the backbone network and now include the local loop, covering service from customer router to customer router. The service level guarantees include an enhanced network availability SLA of up to 100%, standard end-to-end packet loss and jitter SLAs, and a standard end-to-end delay methodology applicable across Sprint's entire global backbone. Sprint is also simplifying and bundling its Managed Services portfolio to help customers migrate to new technologies. Options range from robust performance-reporting tools to complete management of the customer's converged network, including managed migration from legacy data services to an MPLS VPN that can support emerging application needs.

"Customers are increasingly integrating their voice, video, and data applications over the same network and need those applications to perform as well as they did separately," said Dan Dooley, vice president of international business, Sprint. "We've shown our commitment to meeting customers' performance needs as the first global provider to receive the Cisco QoS Certification for the Multiservice IP VPN."

Jeff Spagnola, vice president of service provider marketing at Cisco, agreed. "Sprint demonstrated strong support for its multi-service customers with deployment of a Cisco IP Next-Generation Network and achievement of the Cisco QoS certification. The extension of standard performance SLAs on Sprint's network all the way to the customer premise router is further evidence of Sprint's on-going commitment to providing customers the performance their businesses demand."

Sprint adding NNI Partners
As part of Sprint's ongoing global MPLS expansion, Sprint is working with regional and global service providers to augment Sprint's wholly owned capabilities through network-to-network interface (NNI) partnerships. This strategy integrates partner capabilities with Sprint's to provide seamless connectivity and maintain traffic prioritization settings across the entire network. The first such agreement was struck with Rogers Communications in Canada through its business division, Rogers Business Solutions. Under the agreement, Rogers' MPLS nodes will connect with the Sprint IP/MPLS backbone so customers can experience congestion-free connectivity with security, redundancy and quality of service. Later this year, Sprint will forge similar MPLS NNI partnerships throughout Europe, Asia and South America.

"Sprint's NNI partnerships increase the reach of its MPLS network, allowing customers to enjoy expanded global access," said Taher Bouzayen, senior analyst responsible for telecommunications strategies at Yankee Group. "And Sprint's SLAs on its wholly-owned network provide an immediate benefit for enterprises that value connectivity, quality and reliability."

"While we continue to invest a great deal in our IP network, partnering through the MPLS NNI strategy is more cost- and time-effective for both our customers and Sprint," continued Dooley. "We have simplified decision making and implementation for our customers as their single point of contact for worldwide communications needs. Partner MPLS capabilities become an extension of Sprint's network and businesses can experience the same high quality performance and service they have come to expect from Sprint."

Sprint will continue expansion of the MPLS platform to all international nodes during 2006. Last year it doubled capacity in Europe, increased trans-Atlantic capacity, improved Asia connectivity and launched India and Taipei nodes. Today, Sprint provides access to MPLS and IP-based services in 115 countries through a combination of Sprint-owned nodes and partner facilities. Through its MPLS NNI partners strategy, Sprint plans to expand coverage to 163 countries by the end of 2006.