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Sprint Bouncing Back From Nextel Oblivion
Sees big subscriber gains, but pays for subsidized smartphones

Sprint's third quarter earnings indicate the company saw their best quarter for customer gains in four years (which admittedly, might not be saying all that much). While Sprint continued to bleed Nextel customers to the tune of 383,000 on the quarter, the company overall saw a net 644,000 increase in subscribers. Those subscriber gains came courtesy of new prepaid plans and new smartphones like the HTC Evo and Samsung Epic. Of course the flip side is that subsidizing these new phones up front contributed to a third-quarter net loss of more than $900 million. Sprint spent roughly $1.1 billion on subsidizing gear during the quarter, money obviously made back over the life of long-term contracts (or ETFs).

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tiger72
SexaT duorP
Premium Member
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO

tiger72

Premium Member

Good for them

It looks like Sprint's advertising and improving phone selection are drawing new customers finally. It certainly got me to convert one of my lines to Sprint.

And really, it's very hard to beat $59.99/mo for unlimited data, text, and mobile calling.
glinc
join:2009-04-07
New York, NY

glinc

Member

Re: Good for them

Advertising?? They need to hire more capable people in their marketing department because I watch TV every night and I can tell you its a miracle if I see 2 Sprint TV ads in a week.

But on the side note, its just amazing how they keep on posting Net Losses for so many quarters in a row. I guess if the US is still up and running with such a huge debt, Sprint can still post Net Losses for many more quarters to come!.

Matt3
All noise, no signal.
Premium Member
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC

Matt3 to tiger72

Premium Member

to tiger72
said by tiger72:

It looks like Sprint's advertising and improving phone selection are drawing new customers finally. It certainly got me to convert one of my lines to Sprint.

And really, it's very hard to beat $59.99/mo for unlimited data, text, and mobile calling.
With my 18% employee discount, we get 2 unlimited lines for the price of 1 unlimited line on Verizon. We're moving that last Verizon line to Sprint at Christmas.

en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA

en102

Member

Re: Good for them

Yeah - that's what works for a lot of people.

For me:
Sprint = ~18% discount
VZW = 15% discount
AT&T = 28% discount

There's no question on what carrier I'm using.
hottboiinnc4
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH

1 edit

hottboiinnc4

Member

Re: Good for them

Cleveland Clinic discount w/ Sprint: 18%
Metrohealth System discount w/ Sprint: 20%
Waste Management discount w/ Sprint: 25%

Those discounts with VZ; NADA compared to Sprint's.

PS- Sprint does NOT require proof of the discount like ATT and VZW.

Matt3
All noise, no signal.
Premium Member
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC

Matt3

Premium Member

Re: Good for them

said by hottboiinnc4:

PS- Sprint does NOT require proof of the discount like ATT and VZW.
This may have changed, as I had to provide proof via our corporate account rep.
glinc
join:2009-04-07
New York, NY

glinc to hottboiinnc4

Member

to hottboiinnc4
Oh yes Sprint does because we check it in our store.

Sperkowitz
Premium Member
join:2002-03-30
Valencia, CA

Sperkowitz to hottboiinnc4

Premium Member

to hottboiinnc4
If they don't ask for proof at time of signing up, someone else will check. I got an email a couple weeks later saying I was verified and approved for an employee discount.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

1 recommendation

FFH5

Premium Member

Sprint presentation to Wall St

18 page presentation slides:
»phx.corporate-ir.net/Ext ··· PTM=&t=1

Some Dude
@sbcglobal.net

Some Dude

Anon

Plan price

Their website (Sprint) says that plan is 69.99.

Tooth
@63.148.166.x

Tooth

Anon

Re: Plan price

so does the ad placed right next to this article.

w0g
o.O
join:2001-08-30
Springfield, OR

1 edit

w0g to Some Dude

Member

to Some Dude
if somehow you don't quality for a corporate or student discount, there's the publically available Everything Plus Employee Referral program - $59.99 and 50 additional minutes for "Everything Data Plus 500" plan versus $69.99 for the cheapest Everything Data plan.

Here's the details: »www.fatwallet.com/forums ··· ?start=0

Geminimind
Premium Member
join:2003-12-20
Sacramento, CA

Geminimind

Premium Member

Good

They do have good deals. I like the HTC EVO it is a nice phone. But they still screwed up buying the dinosaur nextel.
Kash76
join:2003-09-08
Burnsville, MN

Kash76

Member

Re: Good

You should consider that the 4G spectrum came from the Nextel acquisition.
DarnellP
join:2004-10-12
Las Vegas, NV

DarnellP

Member

Re: Good

No, Sprint also had 2.5-26GHz spectrum from their failed tv venture with MCI. The additional spectrum that they got from the Nextel merger didn't hurt obviously.

Grothendieck
Premium Member
join:2002-07-28
Miami, FL

1 edit

Grothendieck

Premium Member

Another thumbs up for Sprint from me...

I have a family plan with Sprint with 5 phones, all smartphones. All having unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data!

Total cost for the whole plan is $225 AFTER taxes. We split that amount equally and I end up paying $90 for me and my wife and my dad pays $135 for himself, my mom and my little brother.

So in my eyes I'm paying $90 for two with unlimited anything.

Needless to say, I'm extremely happy with my service in terms of price and what I get.
sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH

sonicmerlin

Member

Re: Another thumbs up for Sprint from me...

said by Grothendieck:

I have a family plan with Sprint with 5 phones, all smartphones. All having unlimited minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data!

Total cost for the whole plan is $225 AFTER taxes. We split that amount equally and I end up paying $90 for me and my wife and my dad pays $135 for himself, my mom and my little brother.

So in my eyes I'm paying $90 for two with unlimited anything.

Needless to say, I'm extremely happy with my service in terms of price and what I get.
That's funny because in France telecom incumbent France Telecom offers a $60/month quadruple play.

Grothendieck
Premium Member
join:2002-07-28
Miami, FL

Grothendieck

Premium Member

Re: Another thumbs up for Sprint from me...

Well it's France. I do not know of their prices.

All I know is that Sprints plan is unmatched by the other carriers in the US which is where I live...
patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY

patcat88

Member

turn off the lights at Nextel

When will Sprint finally shut down Nextel? Its only reprieve was that it was the first cell carrier to offer unlimited calling, AKA "direct connect" walkie talkie. Which made it standard equipment for every teenager in the 2000s.
Happydude32
Premium Member
join:2005-07-16

Happydude32

Premium Member

Re: turn off the lights at Nextel

Why? Nextel is great for what iDEN was intended to do. Many people use Nextel for industrial use and emergency response. I have my own Nextel phone, but we used to have them at work as well. Direct Connect was great for talking with coworkers on finding out info right away. We since switched to Verizon. Not only do the Verizon Push To Talk phones suck ass, no one uses PTT because it sucks so bad on VZW. I use Nextel as my real phone and the Evo on Sprint as my toy phone. I need a phone that can take abuse and the Motorola i680 can certainly to that. I don’t see myself ever not carrying around two cell phones, one smartphone and one rugged as hell milspec Nextel.

Nextel had big impact on the industry. Not only did they inspire to concept of free mobile to mobile like you said, but they were the first provider to drop Nights & Weekends down to 7PM from 9PM and if they were not the first they were one the first to do real time turn by turn voice dictated GPS on phones. At one point I had the Telenav free trial installed on my old Moto i90 in 2002

iDEN is awesome for what it was intended to be used for and should live on.
DarnellP
join:2004-10-12
Las Vegas, NV

DarnellP

Member

Re: turn off the lights at Nextel

said by Happydude32:

iDEN is awesome for what it was intended to be used for and should live on.
No, it shouldn't. It's time has come and gone.
Happydude32
Premium Member
join:2005-07-16

Happydude32

Premium Member

Re: turn off the lights at Nextel

Why has it's time come and gone? What do you say to the millions of Nextel and Boost subscribers? What do you say to local EMS that relies on Nextel, what do you say to the construction crew that needs a durable milspec phone?

What harm is there in Sprint operating two distinct networks that serve two totally different purposes?
DarnellP
join:2004-10-12
Las Vegas, NV

DarnellP

Member

Re: turn off the lights at Nextel

said by Happydude32:

Why has it's time come and gone? What do you say to the millions of Nextel and Boost subscribers? What do you say to local EMS that relies on Nextel, what do you say to the construction crew that needs a durable milspec phone?

What harm is there in Sprint operating two distinct networks that serve two totally different purposes?
Quoteth Dan Hesse: "...but then the alternative on the cost side, because were running two networks instead of one network, we see our costs of running our network is a disadvantage."

Dollars and cents, there's your harm and at the end of the day that's what it all boils down to.

And you don't have to have iDEN to have a military spec phone....

lhvetinari
yaW gnorW
join:2008-09-26
Kenosha/Chgo

lhvetinari to DarnellP

Member

to DarnellP
said by DarnellP:
said by Happydude32:

iDEN is awesome for what it was intended to be used for and should live on.
No, it shouldn't. It's time has come and gone.
No it hasn't. I drove out to California, and for about 1/2 of the way, my father's old Nextel i530 was the only phone that worked. (Direct Connect only, but still.)
DarnellP
join:2004-10-12
Las Vegas, NV

1 edit

DarnellP

Member

Re: turn off the lights at Nextel

said by lhvetinari:

said by DarnellP:
said by Happydude32:

iDEN is awesome for what it was intended to be used for and should live on.
No, it shouldn't. It's time has come and gone.
No it hasn't. I drove out to California, and for about 1/2 of the way, my father's old Nextel i530 was the only phone that worked. (Direct Connect only, but still.)
Yes, it has. Once Sprint puts CDMA on that 800MHz spectrum that your father's Nextel phone was using, it will work in those very same places that his i530 did.

King P
Don't blame me. I voted for Ron Paul
Premium Member
join:2004-11-17
Murfreesboro, TN

King P

Premium Member

Subsidized Smartphones that are duds...

Wonder how Sprint feels after Samsung stuck them with a bunch of defective 1st gen android phones (Samsung Moment).

A bunch of folks that have it, are pissed that they can't call when the phone experiences data lockups (on average 2-3 times a day), and have to reboot the phone each time, to recover (Sprint Forums).

If I were Sprint, I'd take it back to Samsung and be like "hey, WTF!". They've released 2 patches that were supposed to address these issues, but still haven't fixed the problem.

DoRight
join:2007-07-20
East Petersburg, PA

1 edit

DoRight

Member

SERO lines

I must say the changes to the Sprint SERO lines rock. For $30 a month I get 500 mins, anytime any mobile, unlimited data and text and nights at 7pm and unlimited Nav for my HTC Hero. Sure as heck beats my $100 a month Verizon with 700 mins.

gimme5
join:2002-12-23
Kissimmee, FL

gimme5

Member

Re: SERO lines

You have a Hero on a $30 SERO line and any mobile anytime? I thought you needed to $40 SERO Premium for all that.
DarnellP
join:2004-10-12
Las Vegas, NV

DarnellP

Member

Re: SERO lines

said by gimme5:

You have a Hero on a $30 SERO line and any mobile anytime? I thought you needed to $40 SERO Premium for all that.
You do...

DoRight
join:2007-07-20
East Petersburg, PA

DoRight to gimme5

Member

to gimme5
Sorry.. I meant the Advantage plans..

»www.sprint.com/landings/ ··· fservice