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The venture will connect 15 major cities on the two continents including Paris, Frankfurt, Sydney, Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong by the end of 2001.
The company plans to connect key business centres in Europe with a 10 Gbps backbone and plans to expand its network to 35 countries by 2003.
"Our global investment strategy will allow Sprint to provide a single point of contact for our multinational customers as well as allowing us to serve new customers in European and Asian markets," said Len Lauer, president of Sprint's global business market group.
"Our global IP network expansion is in line with the goal to have 50 percent of the company's worldwide revenues derived from data and broadband services by 2003."
Sprint said it would recruit staff for its local account management and customer support sections as part of the expansion.
The company's IP-network in Europe will initially provide customers with a 2.5 Gbps backbone that will be upgraded to 10 Gbps between key business locations by the end of 2001.
Sprint is the first US-based carrier to enter Europe solo. AT&T and Qwest International have already established presences in Europe but through partnerships.
The company had been part of Global One a partnership with Deutsche Telecom and France Telecom. Sprint pulled out of this after it announced plans to merge with Worldcom.
That merger fell through following regulatory problems leaving the company with no international presence.
Analysts say that the company is entering an already crowded European market. The company said its global fibre optic IP-network and U.S. Tier 1 Internet backbone are connected through undersea cable systems.
The company's European headquarters will be in London.
The announcement comes just under a week after the company unveiled a bad fourth quarter report and a dim forecast lowering its earnings forecasting 10 cents a share for 2001.
Sprint's fourth quarter profits fell by 77 percent.
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