Sprint today announced another lackluster quarter as the company revealed operating losses of $398 million, which is almost half of it’s operating losses this time last year. The most glaring stat was how many postpaid customers Sprint continued to hemorrhage, as the company saw 360,000 subscribers leave. In return, the Now Network only gained 84,000 prepaid and 181,000 wholesale customers.
However the company did see a couple of positives, as it sold 1.4 million iPhones which Sprint claims is about 550,000 “new customers.” This is obviously skewed a bit because of the amount of customers who decide to upgrade to a new phone, verses folks who come from another wireless carrier. These numbers indicated that 92 percent of its new postpaid customers purchased higher-margin smartphones, giving the company a tiny increase in revenue.
More importantly than the iPhone sales and minor revenue bump, Sprint continued to grow its Network Vision launching 4G LTE in 230 total markets. This shows that the company is having no issues continuing its high-speed expansion across the country, despite small gains in profit and hemorrhaging of thousands of post paid customers.
Sprint’s low prices and 4G LTE coverage is hugely important for people to take their wireless service seriously. Otherwise, there is no reason for folks to leave the top two: Verizon and AT&T. Until then, The Now Network will continue to report stagnant earnings each quarter. Thankfully Sprint’s parent company Softbank is in this for the long haul — it’s going to take a lot of time and patience to turn this thing around.
Source: Sprint