Sprint Nextel posted better financial results for Q2 2012 thanks to postpaid ARPU growth of $4.31 — the largest quarterly year-over-year increase on record for the U.S. wireless industry. Overall, there was a net loss of $1.4 billion and a diluted net loss of $.46 per share for the second quarter of 2012 as compared to a net loss of $847 million and a diluted net loss of $.28 per share in the second quarter of 2011. Wireless service revenues came in at $7.3 billion during the quarter.
“The Sprint platform achieved best ever postpaid ARPU and customer churn that, combined with disciplined customer acquisition and cost management, contributed to our Adjusted OIBDA* of $1.45 billion,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO. “Based on this performance, we are raising the 2012 Adjusted OIBDA* forecast to between $4.5 billion and $4.6 billion.”
Some highlights:
- Sprint platform postpaid net additions were 442,000, up 68 percent sequentially driven by best ever quarterly churn performance of 1.69 percent./li>
- The Nextel postpaid recapture rate is 60 percent./li>
- Sprint recorded nearly 1.5 million iPhone sales in the second quarter with 40 percent going to new postpaid customers./li>
- CAPEX was $1.2 billion in the quarter, compared to $640 million in the second quarter of 2011 and $800 million in the first quarter of 2012. Wireless capital expenditures were $1 billion in Q2, compared to $546 million last year $710 million in Q1. During the quarter, the company invested $704 million for Network Vision and approximately $230 million in data capacity related to both legacy network and Network Vision equipment./li>
- 9,600 Nextel sites have been taken off air to date — earlier than previous guidance./li>
- Leasing agreements are done for more than 12,700 Network Vision sites and zoning requirements are completed for nearly 13,900 sites. In addition, nearly 6,300 sites are either ready for construction or already underway and more than 2,000 sites are on air and meeting speed and coverage enhancement targets. Sprint expects to bring 12,000 sites on air by the end of 2012 and to complete the majority of its Network Vision roll-out by the end of 2013./li>
- The subscriber base has hit 56 million customers, including nearly 32.6 million postpaid subscribers (29.4 million on the Sprint platform and 3.1 million on the Nextel platform), 15.4 million prepaid subscribers (14.1 million on he Sprint platform and 1.3 million on the Nextel platform) and approximately 8.4 million wholesale and affiliate subscribers, all of whom utilize the Sprint platform./li>
- Wireless cost of service increased approximately 2 percent year-over-year primarily due to higher costs associated with increased data volume and Network Vision related expenses, partially offset by lower service and repair expenses. Wireless cost of service was flat sequentially, primarily due to lower service and repair expenses, offset by seasonally higher roaming expenses./li>
- Wireline revenues of $1 billion for the quarter declined 9 percent year-over-year primarily as a result of an intercompany rate reduction based on current market prices for voice and IP services sold to the wireless segment as well as the migration of wholesale cable VoIP customers off of
Sprint’s IP platform. Sequentially, second quarter wireline revenues were flat.
Sprint also announced the expansion of its LTE network to Baltimore, Maryland; Gainesville, Georgia; Manhattan/Junction City, Kansas; and Sherman-Denison, Texas.
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