Sprint posts wider loss in Q2 as subscribers flock to other carriers
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Sprint has reported its financial results for the second quarter of the year and things are not looking any better for the carrier: it registered its 15th consecutive quarter in the red losing over 101,000 subscribers and likely hurt by the Apple iPhone's availability on both Verizon and AT&T. Not surprisingly most of the losses came from Nextel and iDEN customers, with a total of 327,000 net customers flocking to other carriers. Sprint on its part added 226,000 new users.
On one hand, the figure is a slight improvement over first quarter subscriber losses which amounted 114,000 users. Analysts, on the other hand, were overly optimistic in their forecasts expecting a loss of only 15,000 contract customers.
But – as many analysts have pointed out – the carrier's rather bleak portfolio and increasing competition from rivals led to the result. Additionally, Verizon has launched a 4G LTE network earlier trumping one of the carrier's biggest advantages – the early launch of its 4G WiMAX network last year. The total revenue of Spring grew 4% to $8.3 billion.
Second-quarter loss stood at $847 million, or 28 cents per share, compared to $760 million, or 25 cents per share, in the same period last year. There seems to be light at the end of the tunnel, though – Sprint signed a 15-year pact with LightSquared to move to 4G LTE.
source: Sprint
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