Sprint Nextel reported $8.33 billion revenue in Q3 2011, showing 2
percent increase over $8.15 billion in Q3 2011.
The quarterly year-over-year improvement was primarily due to higher
postpaid ARPU and growth in the number of net prepaid subscribers, partially
offset by lower wireline revenues and lower wireless equipment revenues.
Postpaid wireless ARPU increased $3 from the year-ago period and the
prepaid subscriber base has grown 23 percent since the third quarter of 2010.
Its net loss decreased to $301 million in Q3 2011 from $911 million in
Q3 2010.
The company added nearly 1.3 million total net wireless subscribers,
driven by 304,000 net postpaid additions for the Sprint brand, net prepaid
additions of 485,000 and net wholesale and affiliate additions of 835,000.
Sprint’s focus on creating the best customer experience with simple,
unlimited plans and innovative products and services continues to strengthen
our brand and drive positive results. We are adding to our customer base, our
ARPU is increasing, and as a result our wireless revenues are growing,” said
Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint.
Capital expenditures were $760 million in the quarter, compared to $462
million in the third quarter of 2010 and $640 million in the second quarter of
2011. Wireless capital expenditures were $647 million in Q3 2011, compared to
$341 million in Q3 2010 and $546 million in Q2 2011.
During the quarter, Sprint invested in data capacity as a result of
increased data usage, as well as approximately $115 million for our Network
Vision plan.
Wireline capital expenditures were $36 million in Q3 2011, compared to
$59 million in Q3 2010 and $35 million in Q2 2011.
Corporate capital expenditures were $77 million in Q3 2011, compared to
$62 million in Q3 2010 and $59 million in Q2 2011, primarily related to
infrastructure to support our wireless and wireline businesses.
The company served more than 53 million customers at the end of Q3 2011.
This includes 32.9 million postpaid subscribers (28 million via the Sprint
brand on CDMA, 4.7 million on iDEN, and 229,000 Nextel PowerSource users who
utilize both networks), 14.3 million prepaid subscribers (11.9 million on CDMA
and 2.4 million on iDEN) and approximately 6.3 million wholesale and affiliate
subscribers, all of whom utilize our CDMA network.
For the quarter, Sprint reported postpaid churn of 1.91 percent,
compared to 1.93 percent for the year-ago period and 1.75 percent Q2 2011.
Quarterly postpaid churn improved year-over-year primarily as a result of a
larger base of customers on fixed rate bundled plans or 4G handsets, which
typically have a lower deactivation rate.
Approximately 8 percent of postpaid customers upgraded their handsets
during the third quarter. Upgrades as a percentage of our subscriber base
declined slightly, likely due to customer expectations of a fourth quarter
iPhone launch.
Prepaid churn in Q3 2011 was 4.07 percent, compared to 5.32 percent for
the year-ago period and 4.14 percent for Q2 2011. The quarterly year-over-year
and sequential improvements in prepaid churn were primarily a result of the
predominance of Assurance Wireless customers, who on average have lower churn
than that of the remainder of our prepaid subscriber base.
Wireless retail service revenues of $6.8 billion for the quarter
represent an increase of more than 7 percent compared to the third quarter of
2010 and almost 2 percent compared to the second quarter of 2011.
