PlanetOne 'Awakens Sleeping Giant' By Adding Sprint To Its Portfolio: Exclusive

The partnership between PlanetOne and Sprint Business will give partners access to a domestic wireline giant with international reach, the master agent told CRN.

PlanetOne has added Sprint to its Preferred Provider program and will be helping the carrier giant grow its wireline business through the channel.

Scottsdale, Arizona-based PlanetOne is the first master agent to sign an agreement with Sprint Business in more than ten years, PlanetOne founder and CEO Ted Schuman told CRN.

"We've awakened a sleeping giant," Schuman said of the new partnership.

[Related: PlanetOne Panel To Partners: Don't Fear A Longer Sales Cycle]

PlanetOne sought out a relationship with Sprint because its agent partners have been quoting global opportunities and the Sprint name repeatedly came up as a provider that could fulfill the solution across a large footprint, Schuman said.

Specifically, PlanetOne noticed that on more than one occasion, Sprint was the only domestic provider able to reach most of the international locations that partners were trying to service, Schuman said.

"It seemed like forever since we've heard Sprint being discussed for wireline, but they are a global player, a huge company with vast resources, and our channel partners are going to be thrilled with this new union," he said.

PlanetOne's Sprint Business support team and sales leadership teams are located in Scottsdale, PlanetOne's home, which makes having a relationship even easier, Schuman added.

PlanetOne, a self-declared "cloud-first" master agent, has been growing its wireline portfolio of providers. The firm's wireline portfolio also includes players such as AT&T, CenturyLink, and Spectrum.

"Wireline sales and demand for connectivity are not going away or becoming a commodity," Schuman said. "Everything has to connect into a network at the end of the day."

The master agent said that the agreement with Sprint is for wireline services only. PlanetOne partners will have access to Sprint's portfolio of solutions such as network orchestration, SD-WAN, security, and IoT offerings on a global basis.

Sprint is getting into managed services as well, which presents a big opportunity for the channel, said Jonathan Hartman, senior vice president of sales for PlanetOne. "Sprint is looking to the channel to roll out services like managed security in a traditional, wireline environment," he said.

On the wireless side, PlanetOne is T-Mobile's largest channel partner, according to the master agent.

Sprint and T-Mobile's channel programs are different in that T-Mobile doesn't have a wireline presence. The two carriers got the green light to come together in a $26.5 billion deal. Despite the merger, however, the carrier expects to continue to offer wireline services for business customers under its own brand name.