Sprint Corporation, commonly referred to as Sprint, is an American telecommunications holding company that provides wireless services and is a major global Internet carrier. It is the fourth largest wireless network operator in the United States, and serves 58.4 million customers as of January 2016. The company also offers wireless voice, messaging, and broadband services through its various subsidiaries under the Boost Mobile, Virgin Mobile, and Assurance Wireless brands, and wholesale access to its wireless networks to mobile virtual network operators. The company is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas. In July 2013, a majority of the company was purchased by Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank Corporation, although the remaining shares of the company continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
Sprint traces its origins to the Brown Telephone Company, which was founded in 1899 to deploy telephone service to the rural area around Abilene, Kansas. In 2006, Sprint exited the local landline telephone business, spinning those assets off into a newly created company named Embarq, which later became a part of CenturyLink. The company continues to be one of the largest long distance providers in the United States.