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Sprint teases 'Happy Connecting' event

The struggling carrier is holding a press event on June 23 in Chicago. The agenda is a mystery, but clues point to an update on its wireless network.

Roger Cheng Former Executive Editor / Head of News
Roger Cheng (he/him/his) was the executive editor in charge of CNET News, managing everything from daily breaking news to in-depth investigative packages. Prior to this, he was on the telecommunications beat and wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal for nearly a decade and got his start writing and laying out pages at a local paper in Southern California. He's a devoted Trojan alum and thinks sleep is the perfect -- if unattainable -- hobby for a parent.
Expertise Mobile, 5G, Big Tech, Social Media Credentials
  • SABEW Best in Business 2011 Award for Breaking News Coverage, Eddie Award in 2020 for 5G coverage, runner-up National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award for culture analysis.
Roger Cheng

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Sprint

Sprint is showing it has a bit of life in it.

The No. 3 wireless carrier sent out invitations to an event, titled "This is Happy Connecting," to be held in Chicago on June 23.

There's little detail on what exactly the event is about, but the title suggests an update on its efforts to upgrade its wireless network.

Sprint needs to show it still has some fight left in it after struggling over the last several quarters with continued bottom line and subscriber losses. While the No. 3 carrier in the US by subscriber base, it has ceded much of the momentum to No. 4 T-Mobile, which is quickly gaining on Sprint with its aggressive promotions.

Sprint has been hampered by the slow upgrade of its network. The company has taken to touting its Spark network, which combined multiple bands of spectrum for more capacity and higher speeds, but the deployment of Spark markets has been slow.

In late April, Sprint held an event in New York to touts its exclusive partnership with HTC on its HTC One M8 Harman Kardon edition, part of a focus on music and sound quality by the carrier.