Shane Cole
Despite a net loss of more than 300,000 customers, Sprint backed its way into a $383 million profit for the fiscal third quarter of 2013 and posted strong sales of Apple's handsets.
America's third-largest wireless carrier by total subscribers, Sprint recovered from a net loss of more than $760 million in the year-ago quarter. Revenue per subscriber grew to a record $64.28 as smartphones continue to be a major sales driver for the carrier, accounting for 92 percent of devices moved to contract, or postpaid, customers.
Apple's iPhone continues to be a strong seller for Sprint, with 40 percent of the 1.4 million iPhones — the same number Sprint sold in the second quarter — Â sold going to new subscribers. The number accounts for 28 percent of the 5 million smartphones sold by Sprint in the quarter.
The outlook remains grim for the carrier, however, as it continues to hemorrhage cash and customers. The third quarter's $383 million profit was helped along by a one-time $1.4 billion gain from its investment in Clearwire, which came as part of July's $21.6 billion buyout by Japanese telecom company SoftBank.
The dismal numbers come as Sprint's chief rivals, Verizon and AT&T, posted subscriber increases of 927,000 and 363,000, respectively.
Additionally, Smaller carrier T-Mobile has begun to turn up the heat on Sprint, offering attractive new plans like free international roaming data and completing the build-out of its fourth-generation LTE network. T-Mobile covers 233 markets with LTE compared to Sprint's 230, according to CNET.
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
18 Comments
NYT headline: Apple fails to save Sprint.
I have a gold iPhone 5s on Sprint and at least here in Georgia I have had very good experience with coverage and LTE speeds. I can't speak for anyone but myself but sites like sensorly or root metrics which have free iOS apps are usually able to very accurately predict what your coverage would be like for any given carrier and location. I trust them more than coverage maps by carriers since it is actual real world results by customers. My only disappointment with the 5s, and I think was a bit of a slap in the face to Sprint, was leaving out one of their LTE bands which is the one that was used for Clearwire Wimax that is now being converted to LTE. Apple only included support for 800 and 1900 but left out the 2.5GHz support needed for the clear wire spectrum Sprint now owns. Granted that chunk is not vital at the moment since it is not heavily deployed yet but most people will retain their 5s for about 2 years. 2.5Ghz should be heavily deployed within just a few months since that upgrade on towers will be very easy to do compared to converting or building out a brand new LTE base on the only 3G CDMA towers. A few hours vs. several weeks in fact. That means for the majority of the contract time of the 5s we will not be able to use that part of the network. That is also the spectrum that will offer the highest speeds approaching a theoretical maximum of [URL=http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-cover-100m-pops-25-ghz-lte-end-2014/2013-10-30]168 Mbps[/URL]. No doubt the iPhone 6 will include support for that band though. I do not pretend to say that Sprint is the best at anything other than price and generosity when it comes to plans. Verizon and AT&T both have larger and more robust networks. But while I can continue to get good service while paying half the price and keeping unlimited LTE data I will stay put. I can't imagine what my 15GB data I used last month on Verizon or AT&T would have cost me. It is nice not to have to look over your shoulder at your data usage. http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-cfo-apples-iphone-5s-and-5c-do-not-support-lte-25-ghz-spectrum/2013-09-11
see here: http://techglen.com/2013/10/30/apple-iphone-6-5-1080p-display-negligible-bezzel/
[quote name="jungmark" url="/t/160488/sprint-sells-1-4-million-iphones-in-q3-edges-slightly-into-profitability#post_2427272"]NYT headline: Apple fails to save Sprint.[/quote] "Sprint can barely turn a profit because of Apple."
[quote name="gwmac" url="/t/160488/sprint-sells-1-4-million-iphones-in-q3-edges-slightly-into-profitability#post_2427305"]I do not pretend to say that Sprint is the best at anything other than price and generosity when it comes to plans. Verizon and AT&T both have larger and more robust networks. But while I can continue to get good service while paying half the price and keeping unlimited LTE data I will stay put. I can't imagine what my 15GB data I used last month on Verizon or AT&T would have cost me. It is nice not to have to look over your shoulder at your data usage. http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-cfo-apples-iphone-5s-and-5c-do-not-support-lte-25-ghz-spectrum/2013-09-11[/quote] Experience is largely related to one's area, but when selecting a carrier I looked at the big four. Unless you have a corporate discount, I found Sprint to be in the same price range as AT&T and Verizon. T-mobile was significantly cheaper and offers more. For example, free HD Voice, tethering, and international calls. In a recent Nationwide test Sprint ranked last in terms of data speed with AT&T coming in first, T-Mobile a close second, and Verizon a close third. Sprint was a distant fourth.