Is Sprint The New Google Cell?

Google has been good to Sprint. The Android phones have done what a solid decade of advertising and playing aggressively couldn’t: turned around Sprint’s fortunes and finally had it start to add subscribers after bleeding them for years. The EVO 4G has been a huge success, and Android in general has been Sprint’s buddy ever since it came out, offering real competition to the iPhone.

And now Sprint’s taking it one step further: integrating with Google Voice.

You can find the full details on Google Voice’s blog entry, but in a nutshell, you’ve got two options: have your Sprint number displayed on all Google Voice communications, or have your Google Voice number become your Sprint number. Either way, you get all the benefits of Google Voice: tightly integrated email support, transcribed voice mails, your number ringing on multiple phones, and so on, on your Sprint phone.

Why is Sprint, of all companies, doing this? At a guess, they think, not unreasonably, that it’s the future and they want to get ahead of the curve. It’s also squarely targeted at businesspeople who use Google Voice to stay on top of their communications, who are increasing in number.

And, let’s not forget, it’s also really neat!