Sprint’s LTE network now covers more than 225 million people and remains on track to cover 250 million by mid-year.
The company also announced availability of Sprint Spark, its enhanced LTE service delivering peak wireless speeds of 60 Mbps on capable devices, in six new cities: Newark, N.J.; Oakland, California; Orlando, Florida; Tacoma, Washington; Waukegan, Illinois; and West Palm Beach, Florida.
Sprint Spark is expected to cover 100 million people by year-end.
In its quarterly financial report report released on Tuesday, Sprint noted a loss of a net loss of 231,000 Sprint platform postpaid customers during the quarter largely due to expected elevated churn levels related to service disruption associated with the company’s ongoing network overhaul. Sprint platform prepaid net loss of 364,000 customers was primarily caused by changes in the Lifeline program recertification process that impacted its “Assurance Wireless” subscriber base. Sprint added 212,000 wholesale and affiliate customers during the quarter. At the end of the quarter, Sprint was serving a total of about 54 million subscribers.
“In the quarter, operating revenue and Adjusted EBITDA* both grew year-over-year even as investments in our network improvements continued,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO. “With the expected mid-year completion of the rip and replacement of our core 3G and voice network, the ongoing roll-out of Sprint SparkTM, and the evolution of Sprint FramilySM, we plan to build the best customer experience in the industry,” stated Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO.
