Recently, I
spent my morning and part of the afternoon at the Sprint Corporate Office in
New York City for the #SprintMom Event courtesy of Mom Central, to learn about
the Sprint brand, its network, devices, apps, services. As a loyal AT&T
customer, it was a great opportunity to learn about another wireless service. I
can say after attending this informative event, I came close to becoming a
Sprint customer.
Karen
Paletta, Regional Vice President of Consumer Sales welcomed all of the moms in
attendance, and spoke of her experiences working with Sprint as both a woman
and mother.  Karen, along with the other
female Sprint employees reinforced that Sprint is a brand that cares about
women both as consumers and workers, and knows that we need quality service and
products that are efficient.  Did you
know that Sprint has over 250 consumer sales employees? As a mom, it’s
refreshing to learn when a company cares about their female employee’s well being
and work-life balance, especially when they’re moms.  I was this close to handing over my resume
.:lol:.
After a
video presentation, we were separated into groups, and attended different
break-out sessions.  I first learned
about the many devices that Sprint offers. 
The devices that appealed to me most were the following:
  • LG Nexus 5
  • Samsung
    Galaxy S 4
  • Samsung
    Galaxy Note 3
  • Samsung
    Galaxy Gear

Walter
Fowler, Communications Manager at Sprint gave us the low-down on the Sprint
network.  There was not one question
asked during our session that Walter wasn’t able to answer.  Walter informed us on the improvements to the
Sprint network. Sprint is building an all-new network across the country that will
offer expanded coverage, fewer dropped calls and faster data when completed.
The new network will not only include a 4G LTE build-out but make improvements
in our existing 3G service.  And then there’s Sprint Spark!  New York will be one of 5 initial markets with
access to Sprint Spark, the super-high-speed capability offering 50-60 Megabits
per second (Mbps) peak. Sprint Spark will also be made available in about 100
of America’s largest cities over the next three years.
Lorena
Pino, Public Relations & Communications Manager for Sprint’s no contract
brand, Virgin Mobile (payLo, and Broadband2go), discussed the misconceptions of
pre-paid cell phone service. Honestly, I was one of the people she mentioned
who thought pre-paid cell phone service was low-quality.  Virgin has affordable options, which is great
for students, using the Sprint network. 
During this session, Lorena showed us her personal MiFi device, which
costs $79, connects up to 5 devices, and costs $30 a month for unlimited data.
It’s great to use when traveling.

Lastly,
Danielle Babbington spoke with us about Sprint Apps and Services. Through the
apps and services Sprint offers, Sprint customers have the resources and tools
needed to make their lives easier, and keep their families safe. The Apps
presented are especially helpful for parents, and are available in a bundle called Sprint Guardian, and includes: 
·        
Sprint Mobile Controls – Clearly understand your child’s talk, text and app use habits.
Lock your child’s phone on demand or schedule locks – during dinner, school or
late at night. Browse your child’s contacts and apps downloaded to the phone.
·        
Sprint Drive First – Automatically locks your teenagers’ mobile phones when they’re
traveling more than 10 mph and unlocks when they stop driving. Directs incoming
calls to voicemail and silences distracting alerts while driving. The Sprint
Drive First app is now free in Google Play.
·        
Sprint Family Locator – Quickly and easily locate your family members on an
interactive map. Set up automatic location checks to get notified that your
kids made it to school safely and on time. Sprint Mobile Controls, Sprint
Drive First and Sprint, Family Locator are $9.99 per month for up to five lines
on the same account.
·        
Lookout Family Mobile Security: enables Sprint customers to
manage their phone security by protecting against identity theft and fraud, find
a family member’s missing device when it is lost or stolen, and back up their
precious data. Lookout Family bundle is $4.99 per month, or $49.99 per year,
for up to five lines on the same account.
Danielle
also presented a cell phone a customizable contract for parents to present to
their children when they give them their first cell phone. Since I only have a
toddler, it’s not much use to me right now, but, I still think it’s a great
idea to teach your children responsibility. The contract includes a list of
rules you might want your child to follow, such as situations and times of the
day when they shouldn’t use their phone, providing you, their parent, with
their password, and more. You may download it here: http://newsroom.sprint.com/images/9004/family_phone_contract_4513.pdf 
Overall, it
was a great event. I learned a lot of information about Sprint and it’s other
brands. During the event, Sprint gave away 4 phones, and one was a Samsung Galaxy S4.  Unfortunately, I didn’t win anything; however, we did receive a gift bag at the end of the event.
Thank you
Sprint and Mom Central!

Disclosure:
I attended an event on behalf of Sprint and received a promotional gift bag
as a thank you for attending. I was not compensated for this post nor required
to post.