Sprint 3rd Quarter 2014 Earnings

[cletus]

Not surprised. I expected it to be lower than others were thinking. Mostly because this whole push for competitive plans happened pretty late in the game and compared to T-Mobile it is harder for Sprint to grab customers from Verizon or AT&T. This is a great step forward for them but they need to be compelling enough of a value for people on AT&T and Verizon to give them a shot. T-Mobile now has a reputation for having a blazing fast network in urban areas and people will take a chance if that means cheaper service and (for AT&T customers) not even buying a new phone.

 

I want Sprint to be confident enough in the network that they offer test drives like T-Mobile does. I currently am not confident enough that they are there yet but I feel like it is coming along nicely.

[NYC126]

Not bad. Not amazing, but not bad.

2.5 ghz is still key. Get it out there and get it out there fast. It's an immediate improvement and can keep a customer from switching.

Sent from my iPhone 6 on Crapatalk

 

I don't see the 2.5ghz deployment accelerating at least in the Alcatel-Lucent, and Nokia Siemens markets. Those two are facing a huge shortage of equipment.

 

Having said that I think by June of 2015 Chicago and San Francisco will be sprint best markets. I think they will rise to the top on RootMetrics. Samsung is basically getting that job done.

[IamMrFamous07]

Did they mention anything about carrier aggregation or VOLTE on the call?

[bbspot]

Did they mention anything about carrier aggregation or VOLTE on the call?

They did not

[bbspot]

I don't see the 2.5ghz deployment accelerating at least in the Alcatel-Lucent, and Nokia Siemens markets. Those two are facing a huge shortage of equipment.

 

Having said that I think by June of 2015 Chicago and San Francisco will be sprint best markets. I think they will rise to the top on RootMetrics. Samsung is basically getting that job done.

San Francisco still has huge gaps in coverage.  Notably in Noe Valley, which has no towers.  Downtown still has a bunch of towers w/o backhaul.

 

On the bright side, b26 started showing up.

[jamisonshaw125]

I don't see the 2.5ghz deployment accelerating at least in the Alcatel-Lucent, and Nokia Siemens markets. Those two are facing a huge shortage of equipment.

 

Having said that I think by June of 2015 Chicago and San Francisco will be sprint best markets. I think they will rise to the top on RootMetrics. Samsung is basically getting that job done.

 

It always seems to be equipment delays or something that is out of sprints control. It's absurd, and I hope they find a workaround or the equipment shortage ends quickly. But for the people who have access to the b26/b41 deployment map....we all know that there is much more to come.

 

Root metrics will  continue to show sprint slowly, but surely rising to the top. They got first place (or shared first place) in texting and calling in 94 markets. That's incredible. That's such an improvement over the horrible call drops and the texts showing up hours later. 

[floorguy]

New call center at headquarters.  Eliminating overseas?

Um i wouldnt think...if they are cutting 2000 more jobs...I just hope the people who are on calls speak english i can understand....

 

So who knows where these cuts are coming from???

[Fraydog]

It always seems to be equipment delays or something that is out of sprints control. It's absurd, and I hope they find a workaround or the equipment shortage ends quickly. But for the people who have access to the b26/b41 deployment map....we all know that there is much more to come.

 

Root metrics will continue to show sprint slowly, but surely rising to the top. They got first place (or shared first place) in texting and calling in 94 markets. That's incredible. That's such an improvement over the horrible call drops and the texts showing up hours later.

Maybe SoftBank has to send people to China and crack whips to get equipment moving. I suspect that if the US was band 7/38 that Sprint could get FD-LTE equipment moving faster.

 

On a side note, the Alcatel-Lucent people need to get off FierceWireless and spend more time accelerating deployment.

[Fraydog]

Um i wouldnt think...if they are cutting 2000 more jobs...I just hope the people who are on calls speak english i can understand....

 

So who knows where these cuts are coming from???

I suspect network people in Kansas City.

 

On that note, I suspect a lot more of the network people incoming will be based in Silicon Valley.

[newyork4me]

Say what? They posted the first quarter of net adds in quite a while!

 

Only counting wholesale. 

 

They lost 500,000 postpaid phones and masked 250,000 of that with tablets (which, when given free with a $5/mo tablet plan, make no money for Sprint). 

 

That's absolutely horrible. Make no mistake, Sprint makes its bread and butter off postpaid phone customers, which Sprint let fly through the barn door last quarter. Without the postpaid phone customers, there is no money for the network. You can be sure the $1/mo revenue per wholesale subscriber is not going to be funding the 2.5GHz Spark expansion. 

[NYC126]

Exactly, the Postpaid base keep shrinking, That is where the money is. Even with cheap 50 dollars iPhone deals etc, sprint lost over 500k Postpaid customers.

 

It's is the darn network that people care. Lack of fiber backhaul to many sites especially in markets launched, poor sites spacing in places like Michigan, Alabama etc. Also a terrible phone lock policy. Those customers that jumped to sprint during the iPhone 4S launch in 2011,sprint refused to unlock those devices even after those customers fulfilled their contracts obligations.

 

In a cutthroat business as wireless, you don't rub customers the wrong way. That is

Edited November 4, 2014 by SprintNYC

[travismheim]

 

 

They lost 500,000 postpaid phones and masked 250,000 of that with tablets (which, when given free with a $5/mo tablet plan, make no money for Sprint). 

 

 

The $5 tablet plan hasn't been available for a while.

[WiWavelength]

Until Sprint starts getting to the same speed averages as their competitors on averages like RootMetrics and NetIndex, the outflows will likely continue.

 

How many common people actually pay attention to those rating services?  I surmise not many.

 

AJ

[JustinRP37]

These numbers were not very encouraging.  They really need to turn the postpaid situation around fast.  We can make the excuse that the market was down (which it really was pretty stable today), but the fact of the matter is the numbers were much worse than anticipated.  The loss per share was a full 9 cents per share more than anticipated.  Churn was also up.  There were some signs to be optimistic about, such as September started to look a bit better.  But I do worry about many miscontruing Claure's " We have started a transformational journey" quote, as many tend to view the last few years with Sprint as a transformational journey.  I am thinking that Son is really going to be putting pressure on Sprint to perform. 

 

That being said, I am generally satisfied with Sprint.  Sprint is the lesser of the evils, especially with what some of the others are doing on net neutrality.  But they really have to get the network optimized in the places it is failing.  There are still too many holes in many major markets.  

 

 

How many common people actually pay attention to those rating services?  I surmise not many.

 

AJ

 

You'd be surprised how many people read those news articles that quote those rating services.  For a consumer to constantly see Sprint dead last in these ratings on various news sites, it will take its toll.

[WiWavelength]

You'd be surprised how many people read those news articles that quote those rating services.  For a consumer to constantly see Sprint dead last in these ratings on various news sites, it will take its toll.

 

But would you be surprised how many do not?  If I asked my parents, girlfriend, or coworkers about RootMetrics ratings, what do you think they would say?

 

AJ

[JustinRP37]

But would you be surprised how many do not?  If I asked my parents, girlfriend, or coworkers about RootMetrics ratings, what do you think they would say?

 

AJ

They would say 'never heard of RootMetrics'.  But if you asked them the question, 'Which carrier is rated worst in terms of internet speed' they would probably answer Sprint (just because they have probably heard over and over in the past).  It's the same thing with political polls.  Most people do not know who did the polling, they just hear about the results.  One thing Sprint is doing really well is publicizing its great RootMetric scores in markets where it achieves them, with their advertising.  

[IamMrFamous07]

I'was upset with the numbers but then I realized Marcelo was only in Q3 towards the ending of quarter. He has the right plan to add more subscribers and I truely believe sprint will add suscribers in Q4 and forward.

 

(Didn't sprint say pre Marcelo that will add suscribers in Q4?)

 

My only concern is the spark deployment. I understand his plan but I really hope there is a sense of urgency to deploy it quickly and effectively.

 

My biggest takeaway from this call, they're trying to over deliver and under promise going forward. - I hope

[WiWavelength]

They would say 'never heard of RootMetrics'.  But if you asked them the question, 'Which carrier is rated worst in terms of internet speed' they would probably answer Sprint (just because they have probably heard over and over in the past).

 

Nope.  They would not know that.  Only the small minority of "savvy" users even know that.

 

The masses of common people rely upon personal experience and anecdotal recommendations in their buying decisions.

 

AJ

[JustinRP37]

Nope.  They would not know that.  Only the small minority of "savvy" users even know that.

 

The masses of common people rely upon personal experience and anecdotal recommendations in their buying decisions.

 

AJ

 

I am not going to argue about it, but I can tell you people hear things, and they are not just based on personal experiences and anecdotal recommendations.  That is why advertising is such a huge business.  The 'common people' will not know RootMetrics, but they will here results on advertisements, billboards, websites, news articles, etc.  If RootMetrics were not used, then there would be no business.  Fact is people pay to have this data, why?  Marketing.  Savvy users are not a big enough market to keep rating services in business.

[Fraydog]

RootMetrics does have an indirect effect that's greater than the direct effect, same for NetIndex.

[dnwk]

 

• Postpaid net loss of 272,000, prepaid net adds of 272,000

 

What a coincident!

[jamisonshaw125]

RootMetrics does have an indirect effect that's greater than the direct effect, same for NetIndex.

People may not search sites like root metrics, but when a review pops up on their fav tech site (the verge, bgr (if we can call that a tech site), gizmodo, cnet or whatever)... It gets around a lot quicker than people would think. And since they don't follow sprint and most of these articles are often biased and only show the negatives... It's all people see.

 

I agree. An indirect effect.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 on Crapatalk

[modplan]

Nope.  They would not know that.  Only the small minority of "savvy" users even know that.

 

The masses of common people rely upon personal experience and anecdotal recommendations in their buying decisions.

 

AJ

 

C'mon. I'm a tech savvy guy, software engineer, and have to have the best internet/tech available. All my friends know this. When I tell them I have Sprint they ask: ".........why? Sprint is so slow and awful? you use Sprint???" None of these people have ever had Sprint, few even know what internet speed they are paying for at home, I'm likely the only person they know that has Sprint....but they know Sprint is slow, just based on what they read.

 

My answer: "It's way better than it used to be, I need unlimited data, and I like the direction the network is heading in, you should give them another shot."

 

Their response: "No thanks, I'll stick with my overpriced, 2GB capped Verizon data plan, at least it's fast and I can use it when I NEED it!!!!!!111!!!" --- Even if they typically use ~500MB a month.

 

[bucdenny]

C'mon. I'm a tech savvy guy, software engineer, and have to have the best internet/tech available. All my friends know this. When I tell them I have Sprint they ask: ".........why? Sprint is so slow and awful? you use Sprint???" None of these people have ever had Sprint, few even know what internet speed they are paying for at home, I'm likely the only person they know that has Sprint....but they know Sprint is slow, just based on what they read.

 

My answer: "It's way better than it used to be, I need unlimited data, and I like the direction the network is heading in, you should give them another shot."

 

Their response: "No thanks, I'll stick with my overpriced, 2GB capped Verizon data plan, at least it's fast and I can use it when I NEED it!!!!!!111!!!" --- Even if they typically use ~500MB a month.

 

 

Same perception when all my close friends and family would say.  San Diego is Verizon city after Nextel was taken over by Sprint.  They rather pay more for "better" service even though Verizon is very congested with average 2-5Mbps.  But, when I was in Vegas, Sprint was working better than their service which changed the perception.  Until Sprint is speed king, it will be a rough ride to gain new customers.  People need to know they are the speed king and coverage follows.

 

From that Vegas trip, a couple of people already giving Sprint a shot because they were amazed Sprint was working better.  They felt there is better value, cheaper, faster and getting similar coverage.

[floorguy]

Same perception when all my close friends and family would say.  San Diego is Verizon city after Nextel was taken over by Sprint.  They rather pay more for "better" service even though Verizon is very congested with average 2-5Mbps.  But, when I was in Vegas, Sprint was working better than their service which changed the perception.  Until Sprint is speed king, it will be a rough ride to gain new customers.  People need to know they are the speed king and coverage follows.

 

From that Vegas trip, a couple of people already giving Sprint a shot because they were amazed Sprint was working better.  They felt there is better value, cheaper, faster and getting similar coverage.

when were you there???

 

outside the strip maybe better.....but where the conventions and gatherings are and even at unlv.....it was spotty at best......this was Mid July