I spoke to a sprint salesperson about 2 weeks ago and was told that I could not get any kind of BGP4 peering with Sprint unless I had a Cisco 7000 series router.
As Hank commented eqarlier, I think you've got a salesperson feeding misinformation. I've personally configured and successfully had a full BGP routing session between a cisco 7000 and a Bay Networks router. Would you care for numbered or unnumbered BGP4 with that?
As a reference point, this restriction is also in their customer handbook (dated October 1995, the latest one I could find) available on their web page. If it's just a salesperson feeding misinformation, it's probably also being fed to the salespeople and the customers via the handbook. --quote-- 2.4.2 Customer Provided Routers Customers may provide their own SprintLink router only if the router: * is a Cisco router running Cisco revision level 10.2 or greater * has at least 4MB flash memory for customers with static routing, or 8MB flash memory for customers with dynamic routing * is configured, maintained, and managed by the customer Customer provided routers can be single-homed or multi-homed. Single-homed customers have one path to the Internet from a single customer IP address. Multi-homed customers have multiple paths to the Internet from a single customer IP address. Multi-homed customer routers must also meet the following requirements: * are Cisco 7000 or 7010 models * run BGP-4 When providing the router, the customer will also be responsible for furnishing the necessary ancillary equipment (cables, routing software, etc.) to insure interoperability with the SprintLink network router. Sprint is not obligated to accept trouble calls related to the customer provided router. In the event a customer requests assistance from Sprint to correct a trouble relating to the customer provided router, Sprint will inform the customer that a "dispatch charge" will be applied to the customer's next bill for the services provided by the Sprint CPE Technician. --end quote-- etc. It goes on to say that they are in the process of certifying other routers. It's been a year: perhaps the online handbook and the salespeople should be updated.. -mm-