Data scientists at Sprint see the company’s use of data, as “a natural evolution from where we started,” more than a century ago, said Von McConnell, executive director of the company’s Innovation & Advanced Labs.

So while the telecommunications giant continues to log transactions and managing systems, to the point where it is storing up to 70 terabytes, it also has scientists developing new ways to derive meaning and business value from all that data.

Speaking at the IBM Information on Demand conference in Las Vegas, McConnell said Sprint uses analytics to find ways to lower operating costs, and in that sense the applications are “a matter of salvation” in an industry which always looks to reduce expenses, McConnell said. Newer use cases of analytics are something else too: an opportunity for Sprint to develop insights about the behavior of its customers, to develop predictive models based on consumers’ collective behaviors.