Sprint moves to net profit, customer losses slow

Sprint reported a continued improvement in profits for the second quarter, while slowing the loss of mobile customers. The US operator posted a net profit of USD 23 million, compared to a loss of over USD 1.7 billion a year ago, and adjusted EBITDA improved to USD 1.83 billion from USD 1.40 billion. Mobile revenues showed a small increase to USD 8.19 billion, helped by nearly 5 million smartphones sold. This offset a drop in service revenues and the shutdown of the Nextel platform. 

Sprint lost a net 334,000 customers in the quarter, down from over 2 million in the year-earlier period. This included a loss of 181,000 postpaid and 542,000 prepaid customers under the Sprint brand, which the company attributed to service disruptions related to its network upgrade programme and timing in the start of the new Lifeline programme. Wholesale customers grew by 504,000 in the three months, and various acquired operations, mainly US Cellular activities, lost a net 114,000 customers. 

In total, Sprint finished the period with 54.553 million customers, still up from 53.588 million a year earlier. Retail postpaid ARPU fell to USD 61.65 from USD 63.59 a year ago, while retail prepaid ARPU was up to USD 27.97 from 27.02. Sprint said its 3G and voice network replacement project was largely complete and it met its mid-year target for LTE coverage, at 285 million people. 

The company maintained its outlook for full-year adjusted EBITDA of USD 6.7-6.9 billion.