Sprint's sort of the Motorola of the carrier world right now -- a once-great force in the industry that may or may not have recognized its shortcomings too late, and the drama is still unfolding before our very eyes. Its results for the third quarter of the year are a mixed bag, because on the one hand, it's nothing but red ink and fleeing subscribers -- but on the flipside, analysts seem to be pleased that the numbers are better than feared. Some 801,000 postpaid customers sought greener pastures in the quarter -- less brutal than the nearly 1 million lost the quarter prior -- and $478 million went flying out of the coffers; chief executive Dan Hesse says he expects customer retention to be a prettier (albeit still net negative) picture in the fourth quarter, so at least these guys are headed in the right direction and we imagine the
Pixi will only help with that overall. The big question remains, though: will they turn it around in time to avoid a
takeover?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JayMonster @ Oct 30th 2009 7:44AM
The newer devices lately has helped stemmed the tide... but at a cost. The Pre has taken a hit in image since it sales numbers do not look anywhere near as lofty as were anticiapted uh... Pre-Launch. If Verizon is getting the Pre as anticipated in 2010, it may help the image of the Pre recover, but will do nothing to help Sprint. The Pixi is a wildcard at this point... it may be intriguing to existing customers, but is it anywhere near enough to make somebody jump carriers? The Centro was better selling than anticipated in its day, and the Pixi may pick up that mantel, but I doubt it will be with new subscribers.
Sprint has uncorked every weapon in its arsenal (it seems) to cut the losses to this level... what do they have left to stop the flow of customers out the door?
big_psirex @ Oct 30th 2009 8:36AM
Dropping the prices on their new phones will help....
emaildejan @ Oct 30th 2009 11:43AM
If you actually look at the numbers...the iDEN side is adding subscribers while the CDMA side is losing subscribers. And keep in mind, Sprint advertises their "Sprint" brand like crazy, and barely acknowledges the "Boost" pre-paid side, and no where does it ever mention Nextel as a brand whatsoever. So, despite the lack of Nextel advertising, iDEN outperforms CDMA. Hmmm...and that's with a lousy phone line up on the iDEN side too. Sounds to me like Sprint should focus on promoting itself as Nextel. Then it may actually convince people to buy their products and services and STAY loyal to them, instead of buy and dump. I mean, you don't have a churn rate of 2.17% if you are doing a good job (mind you, that's higher than last quarter). You don't see a drop in ARPU if you keep your post-paid subs happy.
Ah well...what do I know...I'm just a Nextel fanboy.
Proghog @ Oct 30th 2009 11:00AM
Too bad Sprint and T-Mobile are going in opposite directions technology wise. If they were both changing to LTE T-Mobile could bought out Sprint and that would be a pretty nice lineup of phones with decent planes to go up against AT&T and Verizon. The only thing I would sell off though if I were T-Mobile would be Nextel because iDen doesn't seem to be helping out Sprint now. Oh, all of this is coming from an AT&T lifer that owns an iPhone.
Peter F @ Oct 30th 2009 12:45PM
Stop screwing nextel subscribers would be a good start.
Mark @ Oct 30th 2009 2:22PM
Sprint got one of the steps right with introducing new phones that customers want (Pre, Hero, Moment) but completely screwed the pooch on letting legacy customers upgrade to these new phones.
It's alright to say "If you want this phone, you have to get this plan" but it's definitely not cool to say "If you want any of these new phones, you have to change your plan"
There are plenty of old customers who don't want to upgrade their new plan, maybe they think Sprint isn't worth $70 a month minimum or whatever.
I think Sprint is going to regret making Everything plans mandatory for new devices.
Ted @ Nov 2nd 2009 12:43AM
As one of Sprint's original mobile customers, I too had a great grandfathered plan.
The grandfathered plan & prices worked great on those old phones and the limited functionality they presented.
I happily gave up my grandfathered plan when I bought my first smart phone. What good is a smart phone if you have to constantly mind and limit your usage?
The old grandfathered plans work well for those who mainly want to talk and are not interested in texting, accessing the internet, or capitalizing on the many features of a smartphone.
Having a smart phone and a Unlimited Everything Data plans make total sense and Sprint's pricing is very very reasonable for what is provided.
Starting at $69.99, the Everything Data plans are MUCH less than any comparable plan from Verizon or ATT currently offers.
Aside from the great network coverage (I regularly travel throughout the west: HI - CA - OR - WA - UT - CO - OK), Sprint's new plans and pricing are among the most comprehensive, easily understood, best priced with no surprises at all.
Ross @ Oct 30th 2009 10:15PM
I was with Sprint for three years in the early 2000s and eventually left due to coverage issues and awful customer service. Walking into a Sprint Store (Greater New Haven and Greater Hartford, CT areas) was always a complete mess. Crowds of customers complaining about their service being cut off (usually due to not paying their bill), or people complaining about dropped calls. The few times I went in for tech support or to purchase a new phone, I had to wait for over one hour. Always a nightmare. Calling customer service was only slightly better and the reps frequently had a bad attitude (and I was a business customer, with high bills, that were always paid in full and on time). Today in 2009, Sprint coverage where I live (no longer in CT) is excellent and I am amazed how when I travel in this state (Hawaii) with friends that have Sprint phones, they frequently have better coverage than Verizon. The few times I have stopped in a Sprint store to check out the Pre and now the Hero, the experience was very pleasant with courteous and well-informed staff. It does appear that Sprint is changing but despite these improvements (and great rate plans), I am just not ready to take the plunge yet. That awful experience from the early 2000s remains burned in my mind and if things are so much better now, why is Sprint continuing to lose so many customers? Sprint has great rates and a great handset selection. Something still doesn't add up which is why I haven't come back as a customer.
Steve @ Nov 1st 2009 7:24PM
I would have been locked in for two more years had I not needed to change my plan. Simply everything screws users who have 1 Smart phone line + 4 flip phones. The 3rd+ line on Simply Everything is $20 instead of $10.
I don't need to pay $125 more a month just so I can have a Pre and everyone else stays with their phones. I get that it is no different that ATT iPhone requirements. What does make more sense, for me is something Tmobile or Verizon offers.
I am not making any claim to coverage, customer service or device line-up. Just what works for people trying to spread the cost of wireless over many people.
Its good to see they have slowed the flow, I really don't want to end up in a world with two baby bells as our only providers.
Johndoe @ Nov 2nd 2009 9:03PM
First of all, I've been with Sprint for 7, 8 years. I don't live in a suburban area, so the coverage is the same like AT&T, T-Mobile or Verizon. I barely need customer service for anything and whenever I need help, I never have any problem (one time, when I renew contract with a new phone, I was not aware that they have the tool & equipment in store to transfer the contact list from my old phone to the new phone and they offered to do that for free.) So overall, I'm pretty happy with Sprint. From a customer's perspective, I think that in order to get more customer, Sprint need to offer more variety in their plans (I know that compared to the other carriers, Sprint has the best deals) What I meant is that for Everything plan, they can offer $59.99 and $5 more for 200 txt messages. I don't text that much and I don't need GPS, so why should I pay for things that I don't need even though I know that combined everything, it's still cheaper than AT&T or Verizon. As for the phones, they need to offer more phone selections. What they're doing now is in the right direction: we're seeing more phones and the prices is a little cheaper compared to iphone. I hope they're getting better next year
amiguet @ Nov 14th 2009 10:40AM
I had Verizon until I switched to Sprint. For me, Verizon was far worse than Sprint in terms of the customer experience. My local Verizon office was frequently rude to customers and the phone support was extremely weak.
Today, Verizon's quoted costs for a 4 phone family plan are between $50 and $70 higher than Sprint and for my use, cell coverage was the same. Sprint's mobile to mobile free minutes would mean that I would never reach my minutes. My local Sprint store has been reasonably helpful and although waits are very long, I have normally been able to accomplish what I need in one visit.
Since my experience has been positive, I will probably go with Sprint again today unless someone can provide a compelling argument. I am worried that Sprint will go under but it seems that other carriers usually pick up the slack.
Can anyone give me a reason to try Verizon again at the higher price? I spent 5 minutes with the Android and found nothing special about it. 3rd party apps are fine in theory but my experience with the real world app is that they are buggy, un-supported and not worth paying for, but that was with WinMobile apps. YMMV.