Sprint loses more money and more subscribers, we feign surprise 49
Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:51 am EDT 
While Palm is getting access to a big pile of cash courtesy of HP, their webOS launch partner is continuing to lose money and subscribers hand over fist, but at least Sprint’s now looking at smaller hands over fists. As of the end of the last quarter Sprint had lost another 578,000 postpaid (contract) subscribers, but picked up enough prepaid (i.e. Boost Mobile) subscribers to bump their net customer loss down to 75,000.
That’s better than the loss of 148,000 from the preceding quarter, but with more and more of Sprint’s subscribers becoming the prepaid variety, you’d think that Sprint’s revenue would be taking a hit as well. It’s not so, as Sprint saw its first rise in revenue in more than three years, bringing in $8.1 billion compared to $7.8 billion the earlier quarter. The bump in revenue corresponds to a drop in the net loss (or a rise in profit, albeit still negative, if you prefer). Sprint lost $865 million in the quarter, compared to $980 million the quarter before. It’s better, but not great, but Sprint’s still working off the bad mojo from the merger with Nextel in 2005.
[via: Engadget]
49 Comments
headline doesn't match the article... they are improving... slowly... we'll see if 4G helps...
I feel the release of the HTC Evo 4G will bring this company life.
I love Sprint.
Service improved.
Low costs.
Great 3g.
Oncoming 4g.
Free roaming and a lot of other free stuff people don't think about.
Agreed. I love Sprint, and if i could single-handedly do more than pay my monthly $82 to support them further, I would love to. If the available phones across the board are the same (which in the case of Palm phones, will more or less be the case soon enough), Sprint is totally the best deal (unless, obviously, you happen to be in an area where coverage isn't as good as a different carrier, but my coverage is fine).
I personally won't be switching phones until Palm puts out the next-gen WebOS device, but I hope the the Evo will really pump some life back into Sprint, they are terrific. I've been with Sprint for years, and have no intention of moving.
i know sprint we can say is totally the best in pricess but as services is totally sucks and im telling you cause i was with sprint almost 8 years and my service wasnt really good at all i totally got tired of calling atleast twice a week to sprint comp- for late messages, droping calls, no signals bars at all in my apartment and very very slow in the internet but i really love palm and palm is the best ever happend to me soo yupp i didnt care that much about the service and i got the pre soo happy but same all bullst service down :( soo once verizon took over the pre plus i was like fk sprint for all and lets try vzw soo yupp i got the pre plus 800mhz patch + faster card animation dude pre plus is more like a KILLER MACHINE :) FCKING FAST and the service is very very nice no dropping calls no late messages picuters etc and the most inportant the network is very fast and no more tk god the buffering I HATE THE BUFFERING ON SPRINT in order to see videos or stream music or movies.
I agree, I have been happy since I switched to them (for the Palm Pre). Great services for a fraction of cost. But they do NEED to increase their coverage.
Yeah, I'd appreciate a more accurate title Derek. I've been with Sprint for MANY more years than Palm and have always enjoyed the pricing & phone options. Sprint is the reason I'm with Palm right now.
Same. If I hadn't wandered into a Sprint store randomly, I never would have known about the Pre, and thus bought it 20 minutes later. I've always had Sprint, but my ex-wife wanted to see if she could get a new phone, and we both ended up getting new phones, but mine was 5000 times better.
People believe Sprint has bad reception, and that's all anyone cares about.
A small (albeit the largest) 4G network will not boost their image.
Joe Consumer will either A) Hop on the largest network or B) Get an iPhone.
A tiny subset of frugals will go with Sprint, but are they the type who will pay more for 4G? Only the technically savvy, but that is SUCH a small population, I can't see anything but losses at Sprint for a long, long time.
While I'm inclined to agree with your third line, I would like to point out that if Sprint lost a half million customers and are still in business, that doesn't really appear to be a "tiny subset."
Sprint has less than half the marketshare of Verizon alone. When we're talking about an industry nearly 300 million customers strong, half a million isn't a huge loss.
So, of course they're still in business, but they're not on the verge of becoming a market leader any time soon, if ever.
That's valid. I just can't really picture 5 million being a tiny subset of anything. Unless your talking about flies or beach sand, lol.
"Frugals"? Sorry but $30-50 per month is not just pinching pennies. That's how much more I would pay on the only larger network (Verizon).
As far as 4G, you won't pay any more for it than you did when 3G was rolled out.
I agree with one thing though...Joe Consumer gets what they see on TV and in their friends' hands. Hopefully with the Evo they can get some folks interested in a great handset. It's a shame people get fooled by the ads because Sprint is second only to Verizon in coverage, costs a lot less, and roams for free on their towers anyway so there is little real benefit except for the small percentage of people in rural areas who have Verizon coverage but not strong Sprint coverage.
The bandwagon nature of the market is the only real thing they have against them.
I love being on Sprint since 2000.
I have had no issue with coverage wherever I have gone.
You can't beat their price to features in terms of data plans.
I can also upgrade my phone every year now if I choose.
The biggest thing I lack is the ability to talk and surf the web at the same time... one can hope that 4G will solve that little problem.
Ideally I will be able to get a 4G WebOS phone and eventual Tablet from HP. My calls will be handled on the 3G network and I can continue surfing the web on the 4G network.
The only other thing I feel I am missing... is a bit of worldwide support, although I am rarely out of the states.
I am jazzed about the HP merger and think that has bumped our tablet prospects up by a good year+
Go Palm! Go!
I agree. I'm not sure why people put up with the higher priced plans of Big Red & AT&T..
My sister just dropped AT&T here in AZ for the Sprint Everything 450 plan. She always complained of dropped calls and the price for the iphone. Sprints lower price combined with our Credit Union discount she is paying almost half of what she used to pay for her iphone.
She has the HTC Hero now and loves it.
I agree bad title, and with the hTC EVO they will bring in alot of customers, then with a new Palm phone with cheaper plans and the first 4G until atleast 2011 they will make some ground. They have a bad rep for no reason Ive been with sprint for 11 years and have never had any issues, but people follow the leader so when one person says somethings bad everyone follows instead of being there own person. hey its the same with the palm pre, and pixi what a comparison huh.
I love sprint.... Mr. Negativ article writer who let you lose...if you woul work on wallstreet they would hang you
Not only do I love Sprint now, I *hated* Sprint three years ago. They worked hard and transparently to become a better company, and they succeeded, and it's a real shame it's not being rewarded yet. (Sound familiar?)
Yes it sounds familiar as that is exactly my sentiment. I had the misfortune to be handed a Sprint phone in 2000 for work and was glad to have pawned it off to another (junior) employee. I came back to Sprint (begrudgingly) because of webOS upon initial launch. Now that I'm here I'm happy I made the switch but make no mistake I weighed the decision heavily to come back to Sprint. Moreover when I talk to people they all cite similar concerns with Sprint as I originally had. My point is that once you've gotten a bad name it is really hard to get rid of it. Case in point, how long has Audi been working off the bad rap they got in the mid-80's? I contend that they're just now finally getting over it some 15+ years later.
I agree bad title - Reaks of a Sprint Hater.....
We all know Derek and Dieter loath Sprint and Love everything Verizon and ATT...But come on guys, how bout a more non-bias reporting.
what Derek conveniently leaves out is the Losses are coming from IDEN (NEXTEL) Sprint needs to get rid of that NETWORK seriously is a anchor to Sprint...it will never grow again it time is done...
Is hating Sprint just the popular thing now a days regardless of its warrented or not.
I don't understand why they don't compete that well, they have the greatest plans, awesome selection of phones, and the service is honestly just as good or better than anything else in my area (SE MI)
Dude, "awesome selection of phones"? where? The only phone company that has a worse selection of phones is ATT. You have two choices: Palm Pre or Android's Hero. Both slow and outdated. Now if you aren't talking smart phones then the choices are OK but smartphones bla bla bla. They need to be picking up things like the Desire, and incredible rather than letting it all go to other companies. They keep putting all their eggs into one basket - first the "instinct" then the "Palm Pre" Now the "EVO". They need several great phones to let people pick.
But, I love my Sprint and I'm willing to live with my Pre until better comes along.
I have heard rumors that suggest the EVO won't be Sprint's only "awesome" phone this year.
I sure hope they get more. I think Sprint has the best thing going and they are the trend setters as for as plans and offerings go. They just don't have any smartphones to pick from. ATT and Verizon are riding the waves of Sprint's former bad reputation. It will end when one of them messes up. If ATT loses exclusivity of the iPhone they'll be dead in the water. Verizon - well I think people are going to get sick of those prices.
No offense but 6 months ago the Pre, Hero, and Moment were some of the best phones on the market. Now in June we are getting the Evo and who knows what else. You can't expect a new flagship every 3 months. These things come out on various carriers in a staggered pattern to maximize sales. If you changed carriers for every new phone that one-upped one spec or another you would have jumped for the Droid, then the Nexus, then the Incredible, then back for the Evo, etc.
Choose based first on coverage, then price, *then* handset. There are always good options on all carriers and better ones coming every 6-12 months. With yearly upgrades on Sprint you can have the next best thing that much more often.
Also, when people mention the Instinct it makes me wonder why they are talking about smart phones. The Instinct was not a smart phone and was just a gimmicky feature phone designed to get people who saw the iPhone and wanted an all-touch device. Sprint had much better proper smart phones out at that time and anyone doing the research would have known that.
Well... You are almost close.
The moment never was even in the running as a flagship phone. I have the Pre and it still is not yet what it should be. I like the UI but it is not ready to compete with other smartphones. The Hero was outdated when it hit the floor although it is probably the best thing Sprint has.
NO, I'm not advocating that one should or even needs to upgrade to the next best thing as soon as it comes out.
I am advocating that I would have liked to have a choice when I got my Pre. Sprint had nothing and still doesn't have much in the way of smartphones.
Also, when the Instinct is mentioned when talking about Smartphones they are referencing how it was advertised. It was also advertised as their premier flagship phone.
Yes, I know what Smart phones Sprint had. I left my Blackberry to get the Pre and I often regret giving it up.
And besides, the whole point that I was making is:
People want options and there just aren't very many with Sprint. Even if YOU like everything they have it is not the same options that other providers offer. Just say'n...
btw: I have had Sprint for 10 years now and wouldn't change for another providers phones. I would just like other phone choices.
What a lot of people don't realize is that there is one HUGE reason for Sprint's performance over the last 2 years or so that for some reason is not highlighted very often.
The vast majority of post paid subscribers that leave are from the Nextel side of the house, not the CDMA. There are several reasons for this:
+ Sprint initially did a horrible job of taking over the IDEN network
+ Even though they fixed the issues, the IDEN technology is much less relevant today, people aren't flocking to it... it will just slowly bleed out
+ IDEN was based on PTT networks.. as companies and groups leave for newer systems, the value decreases
+ Nextel customers are more likely to convert to prepaid service vs postpaid CDMA service and were more impacted by the economic downturn
+ Sprint has never had a compelling strategy to encourage conversion of IDEN customers over to CDMA - they are afraid to end of life the whole system
Seeing that Nextel customers are still at least 30% of the total base... this will continue to drag down Sprint's numbers unless they can fix their conversion strategy.
Yeah, and Nextel's management didn't do anything to cook the books to make the deal seem sweeter to Sprint than it was. And after the merger, the Nextel management that remained and took over whole parts of Sprint's heirarchy melded right in seamlessly, causing none of Sprint's employees or customers any problems at all! :P
Sorry, sarcasm doesn't always come across well in written form.
I've learned that on several occasions. I'll actually take the lesson to heart, some day.
Edit: I'm referring to the sarcasm comment, for reference.
Yeah, I don't have any issues with Sprint, been a customer for over 7 years. Maybe HP can buy sprint too.
I never understand this, better pricing, good service... It always goes back to journalist - They dog a company so long that a company may never recover...just as they pick their favorite and push them no matter what that favorite does. Take the Tech Journalist, or "Apple's 'pro bono' PR Firm" - Palm and WebOS was never given a chance!
Journalism, has it ever been the "noble" profession every journalist want you to believe?
Poor Derek can't catch a break. He posts an article with proper grammar and spelling (which makes me happy) and other people jump on him for the title. Hang in there!
This continues to boggle my mind. I've been a Sprint customer since 1999. I have had ZERO complaints over the last 10+ years. Customer service has been fine, coverage was fine, and PRICE. PRICE IS EXCELLENT!
AnyMobile Anytime
Free Roaming on Verizon
EverythingData Plans
Why doesn't EVERYONE have Sprint?
I guess people like wasting money paying AT&T so they can have an iPhone and Verizon so they can have the "best" network. I'll just continue to pay significantly less than all of them and roam for free on the "best" network.
This just reminded me that I've been meaning to find out for certain about the unlimited data. Is there actually a 5gb cap on data, or is it actually unlimited? I remember reading discussion about this, but I can't remember what the answer was.
But I've always wondered why everyone didn't have Sprint. Their service has gotten a lot better, and the price is great compared to Verizon and AT&T.
Sprint is doing a good job of improving themselves... BUT they need to do something about their phone insurance company Asurion who is basically KILLING all the hard work that Sprint has done to improve their image. I personally know of 3 people who left Sprint this year because of Asurion's dealings, sending out refurbs that were no more than maybe wiped off. A refurb should work 100% like new, it should not have its front and internal displays out of sync. Someone should not have to go through multiple refurbs to get one that works half@ssed and be told by Asurion they are not going to send anymore. I know of two people who are putting up with crappy refurbs till their contract with Sprint ends, then they may head to another carrier.
SPRINT EITHER TELL ASURION TO GET WITH THE PROGRAM OR DUMP THEM COMPLETELY BEFORE THEY DRIVE OFF EVEN MORE CUSTOMERS.
The bad thing is Asurion is with all 3 providers... Sprint Verizon and AT&T... And yes they are evil devil people I had my car broken into a while back the Pre was stolen i called sprint they put me through to Asurion They were so rude did not care one bit... Sprint has come along way but needs to do something different about Asurion... After dealing with 3 diff phones from Asurion i have had enough and called sprint told them what was going on. We set up a conference call with Asurion (without them knowing) and because they were so bad sprint gave me a new phone for free... I am happy again they did the right thing... Sprints customer service use to be not so good but now is a LOT better all the way around...
asurion does business with all the major carriers and their policies are the same across the board.
I have been a with sprint for years, a converted nextel customer. What attracted me to sprint/nextel was the free incoming. No other company had it. The customer service has gotten better over the years. I think AT&T gained most of their marketshare from the popularity of the iphone. I would venture to guess if the iphone was on sprint or verizon, the AT&T customer numbers would change dramatically. Sprint never has had a phone in their product line that would make people swithch their networks. I'm interested to see how things play out now with the introduction of some new droid phones for sprint and hopefully some slicker webos phones.
I'm with you on that one. People will jump ship for a phone. I don't think most people today are concerned with what network they are on as long as they have the "Status" phone.
Me... well, I'm just cheap! haha
I've also been with Sprint for 10+ years. The only gripe I have is with their Website update from April 11th. I still can't sign into my account there and no one from Tech Support can figure out why. It is nice to see the Under Construction message, sometimes. (It doesn't always show up)
same thing happened to me, just create a new username and password and problem solved
I love Sprint as a customer. Been with them for almost 12 years now. Excellent plans, unbeatable prices/amazing value, good service where I live and where I go most of the time, and my customer service experiences over the last several years has gotten better, much better than back in the dark days.
As an investment, Sprint is a joke. I'm sorry, but they just love debt WAAAAYYYYYY too much. I haven't checked this report yet, but last quarter I was amazed at how much debt they had piled on, and since their credit rating, etc. is getting worse, they are paying some astronomical interest rates on some of that debt.
Honestly, even though Palm was on it last legs, they stood a better chance at turning a profit in the near future than Sprint will for a long, long time. If I were Sprint, I would try to make it for a while and not borrow any money. I would say try and pay off that debt, but that just isn't possible for them right now.
I wouldn't say I 'love' Sprint. But when you look at the alternatives, why would you go with anyone else? Either because you love your iPhone, you're stuck in a contract, it's cheaper to renew with someone else than to switch to Sprint, or you're lazy. My Pre makes my life easier and Sprint's service is meets my needs for the lowest price. It's a shame they don't have greater market share.
Just wanted to spread some Sprint love, too. I've been with Sprint for 10+ years and there were times I just wanted to leave (poor customer service and phones). What kept me from leaving was their plans. In the past 4 years or so, I've seen their customer service improve, their phone line-up improve, and provide the most value in their plans compared to the other carriers. I also have great 3G coverage in my area. I'm real happy with Sprint and I'm looking forward to seeing what Palm/Hp can come up with.
Did anyone see USA Today, Today? Money section has headline re: Palm and HP, and.....
on page 3b... big article on new IPhone APP... to make phone calls that dont hang up on you?? So not a good tribute to ATT... so it costs $.99cents for the APP and $14.95 for the service.. so you buy IPhone on ATT pay hugh monthly to make phone calls that drop all the time, then pay another $14.95 for an app to make phone calls that stick! go figure?
Sprint has been my carrier for 11 yrs from Ca to NM to FL, to NY and I won't leave them...
I have always had pretty good customer service from Sprint and it has been improving a lot in the last year. Maybe the new try for 30 days for free campaign will help.
I have been with Sprint for 8 years now and have never had a complaint. The customer service was not the best when I syarted with them but has continualy improved over the years. I travel all over the country and besides the convention halls where service is bad for everyone, I don't drop calls very often. I plan to stick with sprint and my Palm Pre until they get the C40 or next generation Palm. 4G is to launch soon in my home town and with WiFi my Pre will fly!
I am pretty happy with Sprint, although I am a new customer started about 2 months ago, they have been good to me. Plus their plans are hard to beat, and very economical.
It's a real shame that despite the massive improvements Sprint has made, people seem to not want to believe that this more reasonably priced carrier can offer them the same quality service they are getting from certain overpriced carriers, mind you I mean in areas like NY where coverage is great, and coverage is great in a LOT of places now. Sometimes I wonder if people don't want to hear that they're overpaying for the quality of service they're getting? I have no idea, but it's annoying, I'd really like to see some serious growth and for people to quite living in the past. Sprint became strong in NY 6 years ago, and people still don't believe it. And I've been to quite a number of states throughout the Eastern US using my phones as modems during long car and train rides with about 1 or no drops of service, and of the drops I had, they lasted literally about 20seconds. Obviously I understand there are some small areas here and there are small areas here and there where there is no Spring service, but I'm just talking strong areas here where people actually have the option to save such money. Personally, I just don't see how people can stand paying as much as they do for other carriers, especially in these hard economic times. I Hope Sprint never dies, I do not ever want to be imprisoned to a carrier that overcharges so much.
Right after I got out of college my first cell phone experience was with GTE (thats right just before they changed their name to the brain dead name Verizon.
My experience was so bad with GTE that I swore I would never do business with them again. And in fact the last 6 months of the contract I simply turned off my phone and let the contract expire after I had gotten a Sprint phone, because the terms of the contract was so odious that letting it die a natural death was preferable to paying the early termination fee. And keep in mind the time frame here was 1997-1998.
I joined Sprint for one reason only. At the time they had a straight .10 a minute plans with no funny fees or other hidden costs. I paid $50 I got 500 minutes, cut and dried. And this was strictly a no contract plan. I didn't have to sign up for any amount of time. As long as I was happy and paid my bill I got this rate. I loved it obviously.
This was in contrast to all the other carriers who were trying all kinds of strange plans with hidden costs and inflating their minutes with strange after hours free minutes, like 200 anytime minutes and 1000 nights and weekends, and so forth and then there were the 2 year contracts and early termination fees... (if you don't like cell companies contracts now you should have seen the draconian contracts back then, I mean almost like give us your first born or else... :) ).
And I have been a Sprint customer since 1998. Never once have I cancelled my service or even been seriously tempted to leave Sprint. And the guy who was talking about poor service like 3 or so years ago, I have to agree. I did begin to wonder if I should start looking around. But I also agree that Sprint has really turned it around in the last couple of years.
And the other thing I like about Sprint is the technology. Oh I know the handset selection has not always been the greatest and they are CDMA (which I guess supposedly makes them provincial or something) but I have to say that I have had almost *no* dropped calls in 12 years of service. Now how many people can say that about their carrier of choice? I hear people complaining about ATT, Verizon, etc... and yes Sprint too but my experience has been uniformly good with Sprint. The bottom line is anyone can have a bad experience with any carrier depending on location and/or particular handset they are using at the time. It is just a shame that the carrier gets a bad rep for a fairly small minority of vocal people complaining about a company like Sprint.
And I have to agree with the poster who mentioned the "journalistic" professionalism that is being exhibited by so many of these news writers today. They have a clear bias and show that bias in no uncertain terms. I mean people call the title of this article bad. But I say that the whole article is aimed with a "laser like focus" (a little presidential lingo there... :) ) at pointing out only the things that would tend to steer the uninitiated away from Sprint, as was pointed out by later posters (which a lot of people never bother to read) was mainly on the nextel side and not company wide.
And I have to say I am *really* looking forward to the evo. If this phone performs as advertised will definitely be on my next upgrade with Sprint.