Sprint previews 5G launch, reports declining revenue

Sprint’s 5G is currently on-air in a limited number of locations and the company plans to begin commercial service in parts of Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Kansas City by the end of June. 5G service in  Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington D.C.  Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington D.C. will also be introduced.

The announcement came as part of Sprint’s 2018 financial report.

Sprint reported 2018 wireless service revenue of $22.5 billion, along with a net loss of $1.9 billion and operating income of $398 million, both of which included a preliminary non-cash charge of $2 billion. Adjusted EBITDA amounted to $12.8 billion in fiscal year 2018.

“Sprint delivered on its plan for fiscal 2018, as we met all of our financial guidance for the year,” said Sprint CEO Michel Combes. “While we’ve made progress, there are certainly continued challenges to address, which will continue to put pressure on our service revenue and retail customer growth.”

Further network updates

• Sprint now has 2.5 GHz spectrum deployed on approximately 80 percent of its macro sites.
• Sprint currently has approximately 30,000 outdoor small cells deployed including both mini macros and strand mounts.
• Sprint has deployed approximately 1,500 Massive MIMO radios, which increase the speed and capacity of the LTE network and, with a software upgrade, will provide mobile 5G service in select cities in the coming weeks.