Here's Who Made Gartner's 2016 Global Network Services Magic Quadrant

Niche Player: Sprint

Strengths: Telecom provider Sprint secured itself the title of niche player based on its focus on multinational customers with U.S. headquarters and other multinational customers in major economies buying a combination of MPLS and SIP services -- a big feather in the provider's cap, Rickard said. Sprint provides WLAN capability on a per-seat model as part of its Workplace-as-a-Service combined IT and communications offering for businesses. The provider also has a strong global SIP trunk offering, which is often sold alongside its MPLS network services. Gartner clients also consider Sprint to be a very easy vendor to work with.

Weaknesses: While Sprint has had a very strong history of serving companies with U.S. headquarters, its global network and sales coverage is limited, Rickard said. The provider doesn't have a plan for global SDN, NFV or vCPE offerings, but claims it will roll out an SD-WAN solution this year. Still, Sprint doesn't have managed hybrid WAN capabilities, and its cloud connectivity options for its MPLS network are limited.