Sprint is exploring using a UNE-platform (UNE-P) to provide a bun...

in the next couple of weeks,” Lauer said, noting that a market test was about to wrap up. Lauer spoke on a panel of wireless CEOs who addressed, among other issues, what the pathway was for wireless to begin aggressively substituting for wireline local service. He has described the possible UNE-P bundled offering for local services in recent months, including on the company’s recent earnings call and at an investor conference last fall, a spokesman said. The wireless industry averages 500 or 600 min. of use per month, while a landline local provider might see closer to 1,500 min. of local calling in that period, Lauer said. One challenge to getting consumers to cut their wireline phone service entirely for local calling is that PSAPs must implement Enhanced 911 capabilities more widely, he said. “That really needs to occur for us to have a credible solution to go to the consumer and say cut the line,” Lauer said. The technology piece for Sprint to such a bundle includes an integrated solution that would address in-home penetration by repeating the wireless signal, he said. That in-home “hub” also would include a docking station so that a subscriber could park a mobile handset into a device like a laptop and it would act “just like a regular landline phone in the house.” While wireless will be part of this bundled offering, the company will carry it out through the long distance arm of its global markets group that “already has that capability,” Lauer said. “So we will just share that capability, that suite of assets if you will, of our long distance arm and market that to our wireless customers.” The company is working toward a price point for the integrated hub structure below $200, he said. “We think that will be very affordable and that’s without any subsidization,” he said.