LOS ANGELES — Sprint announced numerous efforts to expand its Curiosity IoT platform this week, including an academic partnership and new IoT products, but perhaps the most surprising move was CEO Michel Combes’ apparent last-minute decision to skip his keynote at MWC Los Angeles 2019.

Combes was still on the official agenda for the wireless industry's largest annual event in the United States the evening before his scheduled appearance. He just wasn’t able to make it to Los Angeles for the show, a spokesperson told SDxCentral.

Jan Geldmacher, president of Sprint Business, took the main stage in his stead and likely made the same, if perhaps slightly tweaked, presentation Combes had prepared. He kicked things off talking about the company’s 18-month battle to merge with T-Mobile US, an issue that is admittedly always on Sprint’s mind.

“We’re looking forward to the deal but we are not yet there. We are facing opposition right now [from] about 16 state attorneys general that are trying to stop the merger with the Department of Justice,” Geldmacher said. “We are expecting a lawsuit on Dec. 9 and the decision in due course. We are still very optimistic that we get the right approval from the judge.”

Sprint opened the event with news about its 5G network densification efforts that increased the potential coverage population by 45% from about 11 million people to roughly 16 million people in its nine 5G markets. The operator hasn’t shared any plans to deploy 5G service beyond those nine cities because it is effectively in a holding pattern as it awaits the outcome of the T-Mobile merger.

The carrier’s total 5G coverage area is larger than its competitors because its powered by its mid-band 2.5 GHz spectrum, but it has no immediate plans or funding to bring 5G to more markets. T-Mobile says it’s 5G network running on 600 MHz will cover up to 200 million people, about 61% of the U.S. population, before the end of the year. AT&T says its 5G network will reach much of the country next year.

In letters filed with the Federal Communications Commission earlier this year to win approval for the merger, which the agency recently rubber stamped, Combes warned that the company will “continue to struggle” and its “prospects will be limited” if its tie-up with T-Mobile falls apart. During the last decade, he added, Sprint’s employee base has shrunk roughly 35% and the company has lost more than $25 billion.

That ongoing uncertainty hasn’t dampened the company’s efforts to expand its IoT business. Sprint’s vision is that 5G will have a big impact on how it blends artificial intelligence and IoT, and how the combination of 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), and IoT “spices up that convergence” especially in the enterprise, Geldmacher said.

“My theory is, and I think it’s proven and tracks in many cases, is that these three disciplines connecting people, places, and things, are converging,” he said. “Everything is software defined going forward, therefore it makes so much sense to execute against that strategy.”

He also trumpeted the benefits that Sprint’s majority shareholder SoftBank can deliver to Sprint’s business because of the conglomerate holding company’s deep investments in AI, robotics, and other tech companies. “[5G] is going to be a very rich mobile experience. We will see smart cities, we will see remote healthcare, we will see safer transportation, and already today you can see that gaming, entertainment, IoT, or business applications, are very much influenced by 5G,” Geldmacher said.

5G is also going to introduce new models for business and application development, and as such “IoT networks need to be made for software because the new applications are software based,” he said. Sprint’s Curiosity IoT platform is a fully dedicated, distributed, and virtualized network so it can separate and more effectively manage IoT traffic, operate in closer proximity to each connected device, reduce latency, and deliver new services quicker, according to Geldmacher.

Sprint’s Curiosity IoT platform now supports narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), and the operator plans to develop edge computing for private IoT networks with an assist from Ericsson.

Sprint also announced a partnership with Arizona State University that includes plans to jointly invest in curriculum development, and research and development to advance business and IoT applications for 5G. “We all know that IoT is an ecosystem. You cannot deliver that alone as a carrier. You need an ecosystem of applications and then supporting instruments and tools,” Geldmacher said.

CloudMinds, a cloud-based robotics company backed by SoftBank, demonstrated its XR-1 robot operating on Sprint’s 5G network doing tasks like serving drinks at Sprint’s booth at the event. Gelmacher said “top minds” envision many service robots in U.S. households by 2025.

“We know about technology and how technology is evolving already today. We don’t know 100% how the technology is applied, and there’s lots of new business models coming up through 5G,” he said, concluding that the U.S. can facilitate the development of new businesses and ideas if it can build a nationwide 5G networks faster than anywhere else.

Jan Geldmacher, president of Sprint Business, delivered a keynote address at this week’s MWC Los Angeles 2019. Photo: Tobias Mann