Sprint's Solution to Fleeing Subscribers? A Price Hike. Sprint spent much of 2017 sucking up to the Trump administration to gain regulatory approval for a merger with T-Mobile. And yet that deal fell through anyway, simply because the two sides couldn't agree on post-merger ownership control. Numerous critics have pointed out that all of that time, money and effort could have put toward building a better brand and network, something reflected in the company's fourth quarter earnings released this week.

According to the company's earnings report, Sprint added only 385,000 net new wireless customers last quarter, down 31% from a year ago. Only 184,000 of those were valuable postpaid customers, half of the customers added one year ago. In contrast, T-Mobile added 891,000 postpaid phone customers during the same period, compared to 431,000 for Verizon, and 329,000 for AT&T. Sprint still managed to swing to a $7.2 billion profit thanks to what it stated was "a remeasurement of our deferred tax assets and liabilities under provisions contained in the new tax law." $7.052 billion of that profit was attributed to Sprint's shiny new tax cut, meaning that the company's service-related profits during the quarter were $104 million. That's better than the $479 million loss Sprint posted during the same period one year ago. Sprint continues to struggle to forge a real brand identity in its attempt to differentiate itself from AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. The company seems perpetually caught promising that the network users want is somewhere around the next corner. That continued again this week, with Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure insisting that the company's 5G plans would be a game changer. But he also indicated that Sprint customers should prepare for some price hikes. "Competitors won’t be able to do 5G speeds," claimed the CEO. "We will offer new applications no one else can offer and there will be no reason to continue discounting. In the meantime, we will be the price leader with some modest price increases." Surely price hikes will help, right? Surely price hikes will help, right?







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Most recommended from 41 comments

shanghaista

join:2014-08-03

Canton, MA 9 recommendations shanghaista Member Lighten Up on Sprint, Please I'm a huge Sprint bear, but let's give them their due.



Yes, they're not growing as fast as they should or need. But profitable is profitable. They're showing that they're finally turning the ship around even if they have a minimal .02 EPS.



That being said, it's hilarious the PR that's coming out about how huge of a win this was; people are so excited about 184k postpaid adds when it lags even Comcast's mobile division. betam4x

join:2002-10-12

Nashville, TN 5 recommendations betam4x Member Honestly... When you make so little effort to have a competitive network, people aren't going to use you. If they quadrupled their network coverage, they'd still be behind AT&T or Verizon. They need more towers, and more fiber to those towers for data. T-Mobile is only doing well due to competitive pricing, add-in bonuses, and great marketing...oh and they can roam on AT&T's network.

BellaStorm

Premium Member

join:2014-04-07

Leesburg, FL 4 recommendations BellaStorm Premium Member I wonder I wonder if sprint is counting the prepaid brands that use their network as part of their ‘new’ lines