RSSSprint loses another 1 million wireless subscribers
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published May 12, 2008, 4:11 PM
Although a big WiMAX deal brought some good news to Sprint Nextel last week, the beleaguered wireless provider sounded a less happy note today, reporting the loss of about one million additional subscribers last quarter, along with a $505 million drop in revenue.
The number of subscribers for Sprint's current 3G services fell to 52.8 million for the first quarter of 2008, down from 53.6 million during the same period a year ago.
Despite some gains in prepaid customers, Sprint lost 1.07 million post-paid subscribers, or customers who pay monthly cell phone bills.
In contrast, AT&T and Verizon Wireless each recently announced quarterly gains in wireless customers, implying that Sprint is losing market share in its current 3G business to those two rivals.
Last week's announcement of a WiMAX spinoff by Sprint and Clearwire -- funded by $3.2 billion in investments from Google, Intel Capital, Comcast, Time Warner, and Bright House Networks -- raised the possibility that Sprint might leapfrog over AT&T and Verizon in the future 4G space.
The WiMax deal also calls for some new commercial relationships around 3G wireless that look likely to give Sprint a revenue boost.
But for the current quarter, at least, Sprint is forecasting only modest improvements to its financial picture.
During the first quarter, Sprint launched a new marketing campaign, along with a $99.99 per month unlimited calling and data plan, which brings pricing for current wireless services below those of AT&T and Verizon.
In a conference call with analysts, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse suggested that Sprint is still considering some sort of sale or spinoff of its acquired Nextel business, which has given rise to many of the subscriber losses due to technical problems with Nextel's iDEN network.
At the VON.x conference at the end of March, Sprint talked in the direction of building an IP-based "Unified Service Architecture" to serve as the basis for iDEN, WiMAX, and Spring's long-time CDMA network.
Sprint is still "committed to" former Nextel subscribers in its current customer base, Hesse said today. But "nothing is off the table completely," according to the Sprint CEO.
Another million subscribers down?? It's like rats who decided to jump off the sinking ship...
I know a lot of people who work in jobs where they utilize the walkie talkie feature on the thick and "1988 looking" phones, but haven't met any regular users who appear to be happy with Sprint's service.
Maybe having Sprint bought out by DT will be a good thing for the company?
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|I'm generally happy with Sprint. Their customer service line is responsive to me, but their staff in stores are generally lacking.
In the meantime, I got a prepaid AT&T plan with one of their regularly available phones and am not quite as pleased. For such an expensive phone at full price (I got it refurbished), the phone is lacking and the sound quality is so-so, though better than the last GSM phone I had.
Sprint still has the best, most complete 3G data network and it'll be a long time until AT&T reaches Sprint's 2006 levels. Until that point, AT&T might as well be T-Mobile. I'll stay with Sprint.
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|My brother has Nextel / Sprint and complains constantly. Those walkie talkie phones are still so thick and 1988 looking.
I have AT&T with the biggest sheep phone known as the RAZR but it works well inside, never drops a call and stays charged for 5-6 days easily, if I don't use it it's 9-10 days.
The stark contrast is the Blackjack which sucks down juice like my wife at an open bar and drops every other call (on the same network).
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|hmmm... has your wife told you that juice typically isn't a primary attraction when going to a bar, and that perhaps that is a euphemism for other fluids?
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|Weren't people getting booted from the service left right and center? Could be a possibility that they inadvertently booted 'main' lines from family plans and friends that kept friends using the service, and family that kept family using the service. Sprint has one of the most competetive plans imho. If I wasn't in love with my Tmobile service I'd have switched to Sprint.
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|Cricket has better coverage and more reliable service than Sprint does. They charge less too.
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|Im in love with my T-mobile as well. Best customer service ever.
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|I remember when sprint was the new comer back in the late 90's. They had no activation fee, no cancellation fee, and very competetive plans.
All of that has gone bye bye. As well as their service, popularity and everything else.
I have had some very bad dealings with them, I moved to verizon wireless. Much better service, but I think ill be moving to AT&T for the 3g iphone coming next month.
I hope its a smooth transition and everything is great. We will see.
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|I wrote an email to dan@sprint.com and actually had someone call me back. I told her my past problems with sprint and that customer service was crap the last time I called (a couple months ago) and that it should be made better. She at least sounded concerned and caring about my problems and listened to me and answered my questions. She even said she'd call me back because she couldn't find an answer to one of my questions and 15 min later did call back with an answer.
I think they should get rid of Nextel. I also think that AT&T should buy them (if T-mobile thinks they can handle the task then go for it) and make hybrid phones. In all actuality I think the US should have one cell phone technology like we have one technology for standard (which should be gone soon)and HD radio, standard (which will be gone soon)and HDTV tv and WiFi. To make the best architecture for cell phones we need 1 standard and since most of the world uses GSM that should be the standard. Even Sprint has 3 phones that can use GSM as well as CDMA already.
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|In all actuality I think the US should have one cell phone technology like we have one technology for standard (which should be gone soon)and HD radio, standard (which will be gone soon)and HDTV tv and WiFi.
It is extremely unlikely that standard AM and FM radio broadcasts will be gone any time soon. HD Radio is proprietary (and therefore expensive for both the consumer and the broadcasters) and hasn't gained much traction, and satellite radio requires a subscription fee, which most people are not willing to pay.
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|HD Radio is not really expensive (by broadcast standards for the station)... Ibiquity is passing on almost ALL the cost on a per-user/device model... as in the King Gilette model where the head end equipment is actually quite inexpensive (for broadcast equipment) but theres a per unit fee of around 50$ PER radio that goes right to Ibiquity's pocket.. This is part of the reason HD radio is a dying animal.. and that Ibiquity is trying to force the FCC to make them put HD radio in each SDARS/Sat Radio unit... basically pushing a failed buisness model and making a guarenteed profit on HD Radio
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|Well, you do realize that most of the larger networks are working on their 4G service already, which is LTE for practically all of them (be they GSM or CDMA). That basically addresses any concerns anyone has in relation to the different technologies.
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|This is exactly how it should be. Customers that are treated like crap and get crap service should be leaving. Capitalism in action, folks.
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