Sprint has had nothing but bad news to report in the last few months. It doesn’t seem to be getting any better for them with the loss of $326 million dollars in 3Q. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse says that the process of turning the business around will be gradual.
Sprints main problem is the ability to keep current customers. They have seen continual drops in subscriptions quarter after quarter for months now. Sprint lost 1.1 million customers at the same time that AT&T gained 2 million, and Verizon gained 1.5 million. The average customer revenue is now at $56 a line.
Sprint has aggressively been pushing their “Now Network†including the Simply Everything plan for a flat rate of $99 a month. Sprint expects continued pressure on subscribers who sign long-term contracts, along with the average revenue per users in fourth quarter. By the looks of it, it is clear that Sprint will not get very much help for the usual holiday season lift.
[Via CNN Money]
I think it will only get worse for them…Its all about the phones and the networks capability…CDMA is OLD, palm treo has been sprints biggest business phone, and when your supplier is no longer the leading smartphone on the market, its going to cost you in the long run.
AT&t added the iphone, Tmobile added the HTC G1. Sprint has had time to plan for a New release,it chose the Instinct to combate the iphone. Blacberry has been gaining on business users for the past 3yrs.
Phones are about the users interactions with it, so when sprint can find a supplier that can meet those needs it will lose.