Telecom Lead America: Sprint Nextel has posted 5 percent increase in third quarter revenue at $8.7 billion.
Net loss of Sprint has widened to $767 million from $301 million.
Sprint’s platform wireless service revenue grew 14 percent year-over-year.
Sprint platform postpaid ARPU increased 5 percent.
The mobile operator reported iPhone sales of approximately 1.5 million with 40 percent to new customers. The company also surpassed 1 million LTE smartphones sold prior to the launch of iPhone 5.
It launched 4G LTE in 32 cities with over 115 more expected in coming months. Construction already started in over 200 cities and over 13,500 sites now ready for construction.
Sprint Nextel’s wireless service revenues increased 6 percent to nearly $7.3 billion during the quarter.
Sprint platform postpaid subscriber base grew with net additions of 410,000 driven by a postpaid Nextel recapture rate of 59 percent and best ever third quarter churn.
“The Sprint platform performed well, with strong net subscriber additions, record third quarter postpaid and prepaid churn and robust revenue growth, contributing to Adjusted OIBDA* of $1.28 billion even as we continue to invest in Network Vision and position the company for future growth,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO.
As per Sprint’s Network Vision initiative, the number of sites that are either ready for construction or already underway has more than doubled to more than 13,500. Leasing and zoning have been completed on more than 20,000 sites.
Sprint Nextel said nearly 4,300 sites are on-air and meeting speed and coverage enhancement targets. Recent weekly construction starts are up over 250 percent from the second quarter. Sprint expects to bring 12,000 sites on air approximately one quarter later than originally planned.
In the third quarter, Sprint nearly surpassed 1.2 million Sprint Direct Connect push-to-talk devices sold, which contributed to the strong recapture rate of Nextel subscribers on the Sprint platform. The company has shut down power and disconnected backhaul to most of the 9,600 Nextel sites taken off air and is realizing the related savings. The Nextel platform shutdown remains on pace for the middle of 2013.
