Sprint Nextel reported a loss in its second-quarter earnings Thursday, but the wireless 
carrier hopes investors will pay more attention to a new deal for wireless 4G broadband.
Sprint added nearly 1.1 million new subscribers in the quarter, most of them prepaid subscribers. The company also posted its best-ever postpaid churn of 1.75 percent and the lowest prepaid churn in almost six years at 4.14 percent. But the rest of the news wasn't as good.
Second-quarter revenue was $8.3 billion, with operating income of $79 million. That's a net loss of $847 million and a diluted loss per share of 28 cents for the quarter. But the company has $4.3 billion in cash reserves.
Competing with Giants
Sprint CEO Dan Hesse focused on the positive: "Sprint's second-quarter results, including our 14th consecutive quarter of improved customer -care satisfaction, our best-ever postpaid churn, more than one million net wireless subscriber additions and wireless service revenue growth, validate that our focus on providing simplicity, value and an unmatched customer experience is working."
Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner , said Sprint's losses demonstrate how tough it is for smaller carriers to compete in today's market. As he sees it, Sprint remains challenged to go head-to-head with much larger competitors, which is one of the reasons it's so strongly opposing AT&T 's acquisition of T-Mobile.
"Sprint has to find ways to differentiate itself from the competition and give consumers a reason to use its services," Gartenberg said. "That means coming out with cool devices. That means focusing on price, which is part of what they are doing. When you are not the dominant player, it can be difficult."
LightSquared Revenue
Seeking to build on its strengths in hopes that service will drive a revenue rebound, Sprint also announced a 15-year deal with LightSquared, an integrated LTE 4G wireless broadband and satellite network . The agreement includes spectrum hosting and network services, 4G wholesale, and 3G roaming.
LightSquared will pay Sprint to deploy and operate a nationwide LTE network that hosts L-Band spectrum. LightSquared can sell its 4G broadband capacity through this spectrum-hosting relationship with Sprint, other wireless carriers, and retail partners.
"This spectrum-hosting agreement with LightSquared allows Sprint to more efficiently use its Network Vision platform," said Steve Elfman, president of network operations and wholesale for Sprint. "In addition to improving our cash flow, it provides additional options and flexibility in how we meet our customers' future capacity needs."
Over the period of the deal, LightSquared will make payments to Sprint that total about $9 billion for spectrum hosting and network services as well as LTE and satellite purchase credits currently estimated to be worth about $4.5 billion. The agreement also provides Sprint the opportunity to purchase up to 50 percent of LightSquared's expected L-Band 4G capacity.
0 komentar:
Post a Comment