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Coverage of the Q2 12 Sprint Nextel Corp Earnings Conference Call


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Sprint Nextel revealed their second quarter 2012 corporate earnings in a conference call to their investors today and S4GRU was covering for news on Network Vision.

Network thinning of the iDEN network is complete, taking 1/3 of Nextel towers off air. The Nextel network was built to support 20 million subscribers, but was only supporting 4.4 million subscribers, so it could easily be thinned without [much] noticeable change in street coverage. Sprint also converted 60% of the Nextel subscriber loss into their Sprint subscriber base. Interestingly, they stated that Verizon has been the biggest poacher of subscribers leaving Nextel, grabbing 50% of former subscribers in the last 4 1/2 years. In that same timeframe, Sprint has grabbed 25%, AT&T 20% and T-Mobile 5%.

 

 

On the Network Vision topic:

4 additional cities will launch, including Baltimore, by the end of August.*Edit* Cities were disclosed VIA press release following the conference call. They are:

  • Baltimore, MD
  • Gainesville, GA
  • Manhattan/Junction City, KS
  • Sherman-Denison, TX

 

Over 2,000 sites are currently online with 12,000 sites to be online by the end of the year

Network Vision towers are seeing 10-20% additional voice minutes usage per tower, overnight after activating Network Vision. This will equal roaming savings for Sprint, and ESMR will only increase that savings.

CEO Dan Hesse confirmed that Sprint will be releasing the Motorola Photon Q "in the very near future." It will be a QWERTY slider "with robust business and consumer features." It will also be sporting world phone capability.

Several hundred Network Vision sites are waiting for backhaul, and will turn on when the backhaul is installed, several hundred more sites have birds nesting on them and Sprint won't be able to turn them on until the birds leave, according to the conference call.

Sprint sold 1.5 million iPhones during the quarter, even though other carriers saw slowing of sales with rumors ramping up that the new iPhone would support LTE. 40% of the iPhone sales were to new customers. They also stated that iPhone customers require less customer support and are expected to churn less than customers on other phones.

Mr. Hesse confirmed that Sprint is not looking to change plans in the near future.

Things are looking up for Sprint. This quarter saw their highest ARPU and their lowest churn rate to date. They posted a larger loss than Q1, but beat their revenue goals for Q2. For more detailed financial information, check the source link below.

 

Source: http://investors.spr...spx?iid=4057219

http://finance.yahoo...-141200985.html -Thanks to S4GRU sponsor marioc21 for finding this link!

  • Like 8

22 Comments


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Odell

Posted

I wonder what Sprint attributes the lower customer support needs of iPhone users to?

pyroscott

Posted

I wonder what Sprint attributes the lower customer support needs of iPhone users to?

 

Could be partially due to them not offering insurance on the iPhone, so applecare takes care of a lot of the device-related customer support.

  • Like 3
SurrealOne

Posted

Anyword if the new Motorola Photon Q will support SDC?

Josh

Posted

Anyword if the new Motorola Photon Q will support SDC?

As far as I have heard, sprint will allow download of an app that will allow any of their android smartphones use the feature, but I am not sure if they will charge for it. I have no idea if there will be a dedicated PTT button if that is what you are asking.

pyroscott

Posted

Unfortunately, they did not go in depth about the Photon Q 4G LTE in the conference call. I would expect to see details coming out soon though since Mr. Hesse let the cat out of the bag.

  • Like 1
nmbr1scoobs

Posted

Holy awesome, Sprint's stock is up 20% for the DAY.

  • Like 1
Deval

Posted

I wonder what Sprint attributes the lower customer support needs of iPhone users to?

 

The iPhone by design is a very easy to use device, and anyone who has used an iPod Touch would feel right at home. Along with that, the device is locked down tight, so there is a lot less that someone can do to break it.

  • Like 1
Allen87

Posted

Holy awesome, Sprint's stock is up 20% for the DAY.

 

Yeah I know I that there must have been something wrong when I got on E-Trade and saw how much the stock had gone up. Love to see that they are adding Gainesville Ga soon : )

 

Has anyone heard if there is a software update coming soon to make the Evo LTE to search for 4G on its own? and if they are going to change the the thresholds to hold 4G? I was all over Atlanta today and my phone would not find LTE on its own and even when I would prompt it it would not hold it. only one time did stay contected long enought to use.

 

I love what sprint is doing and dont mined the growing pains but when you get a taset of 4G you want more.

  • Like 1
Pillowsplat

Posted

"several hundred more sites have birds nesting on them and Sprint won't be able to turn them on until the birds leave, according to the conference call." Tell me you just testing us to see if we are reading. Its probably the Verizon guys putting bird food on the Sprint towers. I'm sure if you send a couple of Megawatts up the cables they would leave. Oops ..... Well they are gone .... fire that baby up!!!

  • Like 1
pyroscott

Posted

"several hundred more sites have birds nesting on them and Sprint won't be able to turn them on until the birds leave, according to the conference call." Tell me you just testing us to see if we are reading. Its probably the Verizon guys putting bird food on the Sprint towers. I'm sure if you send a couple of Megawatts up the cables they would leave. Oops ..... Well they are gone .... fire that baby up!!!

 

LOL, I was amazed that it would be that big of a problem when they mentioned it.... Several hundred??? was my thought. So I figured it could use a mention in the article.

fubka

Posted

So they lost 75% of their Nextel subscribers... Everything else sounds good. The bird nesting excuse for further delaying much needed back hauling does not add up to me. The back haul goes all the way up to the tower antennas and not just at the base station? Are the birds nesting on the gates to the cell tower?

pyroscott

Posted

So they lost 75% of their Nextel subscribers... Everything else sounds good. The bird nesting excuse for further delaying much needed back hauling does not add up to me. The back haul goes all the way up to the tower antennas and not just at the base station? Are the birds nesting on the gates to the cell tower?

 

They lost 75% over the last 4.5 years, they kept 60% this last quarter.

The towers held up by birds are not necessarily the same as those held up by hackhaul...

  • Like 1
JohnHovah

Posted

"several hundred more sites have birds nesting on them and Sprint won't be able to turn them on until the birds leave, according to the conference call." Tell me you just testing us to see if we are reading. Its probably the Verizon guys putting bird food on the Sprint towers. I'm sure if you send a couple of Megawatts up the cables they would leave. Oops ..... Well they are gone .... fire that baby up!!!

 

 

And here I was thinking we could have a fried chicken bbq at onsite lte light-up party!

  • Like 2
danielholt

Posted

And here I was thinking we could have a fried chicken bbq at onsite lte light-up party!

 

my restaurant, shermans southern bbq would like to host your event.

  • Like 2
TH4RO

Posted

I was hoping Hesse would talk a little more about the rollouts picking up more steam.

 

I enjoyed reading today about MetroPCS being 97% done with LTE. They had a good qtr and attributed it to the lower operating cost of their new LTE network.

  • Like 1
4ginnc

Posted

I wonder what Sprint attributes the lower customer support needs of iPhone users to?

 

One thing I've seen is that Sprint doesn't provide much support itself for the iPhone. Went to the local Sprint store when I had an issue with my broadband card and while I was waiting a couple folks came in with iPhone issues. Sprint reps told them they couldn't help and they'd have to call Apple. That's one way to save time supporting the iPhone.

  • Like 3
Allen87

Posted

Here is a good site on Sprints website to find out was has been doen and what is coming soon to towers in your area. It shows the past six month and next six.

 

Robert can you tell me if when this map says data speed upgrade dose that mean that they updated them to be Lte towers when they turn them on?

 

Other good news sprint stock up again today!!!

 

https://network.sprint.com/

pyroscott

Posted

They do not mean LTE. The network vision updates (LTE) are not being tracked on that website. Data speed upgrade probably means that they are adding more backhaul capacity to the 3G on that tower.

  • Like 1
S4GRU

Posted

Here is a good site on Sprints website to find out was has been doen and what is coming soon to towers in your area. It shows the past six month and next six.Robert can you tell me if when this map says data speed upgrade dose that mean that they updated them to be Lte towers when they turn them on?Other good news sprint stock up again today!!!https://network.sprint.com/

 

They do not mean LTE. The network vision updates (LTE) are not being tracked on that website. Data speed upgrade probably means that they are adding more backhaul capacity to the 3G on that tower.

 

Scott is correct. Upgrades shown at network.sprint.com are network maintenance upgrades being handled by Ericsson. Sprint contracts out their network management to Ericsson.

 

Ericsson is doing these network maintenance upgrades with adding additional voice carriers, 3G EVDO carriers and additional T1 backhaul. So when you see "data speed upgrade", really Ericsson is installing one or two additional T1 lines to help increase average speeds at the site. In some rare cases, it may include AAV backhaul in lieu of T1 lines.

 

Robert

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