Sprints results show unlimited mobile plans pay off

Sprint is having a topsy-turvy week. It has reported it’s third quarter finances - which show both impressive losses and impressive gains in different areas. The operator, third largest in the US, is continuing its trend of losing subscribers. But is also showing signs of slowing the exodus, and maybe even turning it around.

What’s the problem?

In total Sprint lost 135,000 retail subscribers, combining pre- and post-paid, and lost almost $500 million. The biggest loss was in the post-paid (or “bill pay”) category - Sprint lost over 800,000 people there. But the pre-paid category, in the shape of Sprint subsidiary Boost Mobile, saw a tremendous pick up of business. It wasn’t enough to offset the massive losses in post-paid wireless and wireline, but  Sprint was able to point to definite growth areas in it’s product portfolio - growth areas that it can expect to keep on growing. Sprint is seeing good performance in pre-paid subscribers and unlimited mobile plans, and a good reaction to its increased mobile device selection.

On top of everything else, it ended the third quarter with $6 billion in the bank. So it’s not going to vanish any time soon.

What we think?

I don’t see Sprint going belly up, being bought out or merging any time soon. What we’re seeing here, as far as I can make out, is a transitional period. Sprint has finally hit on a formula that consumers like - good value unlimited plans - but these things take time to kick in. An interesting comment I’ve read is that reason Sprint continues to lose customers is because it has been losing customers. It has a bad rep now - but Sprint customers are saying that the rep may now be undeserved. It has better coverage than it used to, and one of the most progressive attitudes to unlimited mobile plans I’ve ever seen in a mobile operator. And the unlimited lessons that were learned with Boost have begun to trickle back to Sprint. The Sprint Everything Data Plan gives subscribers unlimited data, voice and SMS for $70 a month. With an attitude like that, I honestly think we’ll see business start to climb back up for Sprint over the next year.