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Aug. 19, 2008

Sprint Nextel said today that it is spending $2 million to upgrade its network in Minnesota.

Sprint said the main reason for the upgrade is for the Republican National Convention in September.

Sprint’s Brian Chase, area manager for engineering said “we’ve been planning for this since it was announced that St. Paul would be the host. Thousands of people will be flooding the area early next month and we’ve been working diligently to make this convention a seamless and memorable telecommunications experience.”

The network upgrades include a new CDMA site and a new iDEN (push-to-talk) site inside the Xcel Energy Center, where the convention will be held.

Sprint said new wireless sites were also added to 15 local hotels and various other convention centers and public areas, such as the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport’s Lindbergh Terminal.

There are also emergency preparations including a truck-mounted satellite mobile site and 24-hour support for law enforcement, the Secret Service and local utilities.

A spokesman for the John McCain camp said the senator’s personal phone is a Motorola Razr Gold, while the expected Democratic candidate Barack Obama uses an unspecified BlackBerry device.

Overall, neither campaign replied to questions about which wireless carriers provide the candidates' service.

Yesterday, Verizon made a similar announcement of three new cell sites in Denver for the August Democratic convention later next week, although AT&T is that convention’s official wireless sponsor.

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Source: IT Direction.