Melissa Block explores the long family history of the companies that comprise what became Sprint. It all began in Kansas in the late 19th century and came to include a long distance system created by the Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Network Telecommunications, or SPRINT.

In 1972, a request came in from the president of the railroad to seek out a way to use our already existing communications lines for long-distance dialing.

This was new territory for the railroad. By the mid-1970s, Neff says Southern Pacific was selling time on its extensive microwave communications system to private customers. The move put a dent in AT&T's longstanding long-distance monopoly.

They decided to hold a contest after we were able to prove that everything worked, and the winning title was Sprint, which stood for Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony.

Telephony according to Brijet Neff gave way to telecommunications, and the name Sprint was born.

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