Sprint added 967,000 customer connections on its network in Q4 2014, compared to 590,000 in the prior quarter and 682,000 in the prior year quarter. The company cited momentum with its new pricing structure and said the quality of the customer base is improving as well. Net operating revenues of $9 billion were down 2 percent year-over-year, as lower service revenue was mostly offset by higher equipment revenue. There was an operating loss of $2.5 billion, which included non-cash charges of $2.1 billion, and Adjusted EBITDA of $1.04 billion.
“We are pleased with the growth in sales in the quarter and the improving quality of our customer base as we begin our turnaround plan,” said Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure. “However, we acknowledge there is a long way to go to reach our goals, including lowering our postpaid churn rates to competitive levels. Our network performance continues to improve, and we are now focused on a strategy that will unlock the true potential of our spectrum assets. I am confident that we have the right plan in place to be successful.”
Some higlights:
- Postpaid net additions of 30,000 increased by 302,000 sequentially and decreased by 28,000 year-over-year. Postpaid phone losses of 205,000 improved by 295,000 sequentially and 202,000 year-over-year, as higher prime credit quality gross additions were partially offset by higher churn. Device financing options accounted for 46 percent of postpaid sales in the quarter, compared to 27 percent in the prior quarter and 7 percent in the year-ago period.
- Prepaid net additions of 410,000 were up 88,000 year-over-year due to growth in the Boost brand.
- Wholesale net additions of 527,000 were up 225,000 from the prior year quarter, mostly driven by connected devices.
- Sprint had 55.9 million total connections at the end of the quarter.
- Sprint’s 800 MHz voice deployment reached nationwide availability during Q4.
- Sprint’s 4G LTE now covers 270 million people, and the 2.5 GHz 4G LTE deployment now covers 125 million people.
- Sprint’s achieved its lowest dropped call rate ever during Q4, representing an over 50 percent year-over-year improvement according to Nielsen.
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