Sprint Corporation today said its Capex (capital spending) in the first fiscal quarter of 2014 dipped 25.35 percent to $1,416 million from $1,897 million.
The wireless operator is expecting capital expenditures of less than $7 billion in 2014, said Sprint.
Sprint Capex
Following the huge investment in telecom networks, Sprint is in the process of completing its project to upgrade core 3G and voice network. Sprint LTE coverage reached nearly 254 million people in 488 cities across the country.
During the first quarter, Sprint announced the nationwide availability of HD Voice.
Sprint Spark that leverages the company’s 800MHz, 1.9GHz and 2.5GHz spectrum, is now available in 27 markets across the country.
It offers 22 Sprint Spark-capable devices, including the recently launched Samsung Galaxy S 5 Sport, LG G3, and HTC One (M8) Harman/Kardon edition.
Capex fails to lift subscriber base
Due to network replacement, Sprint platform reported a net loss of 220,000 customers in the quarter, compared to a net loss of 383,000 customers last quarter and 520,000 customers in the prior year period.
Sprint platform postpaid lost 181,000 users during the quarter due to expected elevated churn levels related to service disruption.
In addition, the company said Sprint platform prepaid lost 542,000 customers mainly due to the timing of the annual Lifeline program recertification process that impacted the Assurance Wireless subscriber base.
Sprint added 503,000 wholesale and affiliate customers during the quarter.
The Sprint platform served over 53 million subscribers at the end of the quarter.
Sprint revenue
The American mobile carrier said its revenue decreased 0.99 percent to $8,789 million from $8,877 million.
Sprint posted net income of $23 million against net loss of $1,597 million.
“Net income of $23 million is the best performance in almost seven years when excluding the non-cash transaction-related impacts from last year, and consolidated operating income of $519 million, the highest in more than seven years,” said Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint.
