Wireless Financial Reporting Season

[marioc21]

Some really good numbers.

 

Better than expected it seems. But you can see that Nextel is still bringing them down. But they've almost rid themselves of it. I just went back and added the total customers by brand info to my post. 3.8 million left on Nextel.

[JeffDTD]

Great network vision news... I'm eager to hear if anything is said in the conference call about LTE roaming/network sharing.

 

I did notice that Churn on Sprint postpaid went up very slightly; the change is negligible, but more notable when you consider the churn on prepaid has consistently declined. You could probably attribute some of the postpaid movement to the changes in discounts/free contract terminations, but I think the take away is that "customer satisfaction with prepaid" continues to grow. Some of that has to be handset offerings, but I also consider prepaid to be a great measure of the "standalone" performance of the native sprint network. Would argue this means the network is performing very well for many. Would also argue that Sprint's legacy network is a great product and if maintained, remains something of value that is very marketable at the right price.

 

If I were an investor, I would definitely be asking about their plans for mobilization of the 5.4 million postpaid and prepaid remaining nextel customers... For 1.5 million of them on prepaid, I would think they might just budget price some nice CDMA offerings, but for the rest.... if the current rate of conversion continues, 2013 has the potential to put sprint back in the 53-54 million customer range, granted the rate of growth is perpetuated.

[marioc21]

Listening to financial call now. Highlights so far:

• 7 consecutive of quarter of Sprint brand being "net port postive". More customers porting in a number from another carrier than porting out.
  
• Prepaid brands (virgin mobile and boost) will get Wimax 4G.
  
• 44% of iphone customers are new to sprint. Unlimited data was big factor in their decisions.
  

[MacinJosh]

Listening to financial call now. Highlights so far:

 

Prepaid brands (virgin mobile and boost) will get Wimax 4G.

44% of iphone customers are new to sprint. Unlimited data was big factor in their decisions.

 

Positive confirmation of the prepaid access to WiMax rumors. Glad to hear.

 

Sent from Joshs iPhone 3Gs using Forum Runner

[marioc21]

Positive confirmation of the prepaid access to WiMax rumors. Glad to hear.

 

Sent from Joshs iPhone 3Gs using Forum Runner

 

Hesse said they would get it sometime in the current quarter. Would have an announcement at a later date. So far nothing else really new on the call.

[BenChase7]

Positive confirmation of the prepaid access to WiMax rumors. Glad to hear.

 

Sent from Joshs iPhone 3Gs using Forum Runner

 

I'll bet that Sprint stock of yours soars today!

[MacinJosh]

 

I'll bet that Sprint stock of yours soars today!

 

I'm not gonna expect it Ben. Not with a net operating loss that big.

 

Sent from Joshs iPhone 3Gs using Forum Runner

[marioc21]

Here's the link to the financial presentation slides. Nothing really worthwhile though.

 

http://investors.sprint.com/Cache/1001165460.PDF?D=&O=PDF&IID=4057219&Y=&T=&FID=1001165460

[BenChase7]

I'm not gonna expect it Ben. Not with a net operating loss that big.

 

Sent from Joshs iPhone 3Gs using Forum Runner

 

up over 7% right now

 

Edit: keep in mind, josh, there may be a loss, but the numbers are far better then expected.

[marioc21]

I'm not gonna expect it Ben. Not with a net operating loss that big.

 

Sent from Joshs iPhone 3Gs using Forum Runner

 

Looks like it'll open big. It's up $0.19/share in pre-market trading.

[MacinJosh]

 

up over 9% right now

 

Really? I'll have to check that out. Now if only Clearwire would report a profit tomorrow. I fear they are closer to financial meltdown than Sprint.

 

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[4ginnc]

Network Vision slides from the call:

 

 

 

Showing good progress.

[marioc21]

Really? I'll have to check that out. Now if only Clearwire would report a profit tomorrow. I fear they are closer to financial meltdown than Sprint.

 

Sent from Joshs iPhone 3Gs using Forum Runner

 

Sprint stock price had been hammered in run up to financials. And results were better than analyst estimates.

[4ginnc]

Network Vision spending in 1Q was $104million, expected to double in 2Q

[MacinJosh]

Network Vision spending in 1Q was $104million, expected to double in 2Q

 

Only $104 million? Isn't the whole Network Vision project supposed to cost $5-$6 billion?

[marioc21]

Q&A time on the call.

[marioc21]

Network Vision spending in 1Q was $104million, expected to double in 2Q

 

Only $104 million? Isn't the whole Network Vision project supposed to cost $5-$6 billion?

 

I believe that number was just the increase in Network Vision spending from the 4th quarter 2011 to 1st quarter 2012. They stated that total capital expenditures for 2012 should be about $6 billion.

[4ginnc]

Yeah, I thought that was low too considering what the total overall bill is supposed to be. They are moving according to the charts, with 600 sites live and construction supposedly started on 3,000 sites.

[4ginnc]

I believe that number was just the increase in Network Vision spending from the 4th quarter 2011 to 1st quarter 2012. They stated that total capital expenditures for 2012 should be about $6 billion.

 

What I thought I heard was Network Vision spending was $54 million in 4Q11 and $104 million in 1Q12 and will double again for 2Q12. I could be "misremembering" though.

[marioc21]

What I thought I heard was Network Vision spending was $54 million in 4Q11 and $104 million in 1Q12 and will double again for 2Q12. I could be "misremembering" though.

 

I think you're right. They've only completed 600 sites and Steve Elfman, President of Network Ops, just said Sprint doesn't pay anything to alca-lu/Ericsson/Samsung until a site is completed and Sprint accepts delivery. So we should NV costs continue to rise throughout the year as more sites come online.

[4ginnc]

Just heard them say that expenditures will really start to increase once the fiber backhaul costs start to show up. Maybe that's were most of the money goes.

[marioc21]

Only mention of LTE roaming was deal with Clearwire to use 2.5ghz when they launch LTE in 2013. No further talk of roaming deals. Disappointing.

[marioc21]

Financial call is all wrapped up. Nothing really knew. Sprint still said it's estimating between 80 and 120 million LTE pops by year-end. Would not discuss any other LTE markets beyond the 6 they've already announced. And no discussion of any LTE roaming plans beyond Clearwire.

[S4GRU]

I am headed to an important meeting, but I will add this point. The number of total sites being completed in 2012 is way down. They were initially aiming for 20,000 sites in 2012. NV is a total of 38,000 sites. This may not be a total schedule slip, as they may make it up in 2013. But it is a slip.

 

If I were Sprint, I'd consider changing strategies. Perhaps whole market conversions are not the way with the current schedule. Instead of having four/five crews in each of the markets now, maybe break it up and get two of those crews moving on to another market. Even though it will slow down one market, the other one will start getting deployment early. And more markets can have some sort of LTE coverage.

 

However, I wouldn't slow down Chicago, given their problems. If anything, I would speed that one up.

 

Robert via NOVO7PALADIN Tablet using Forum Runner

[irev210]

I am headed to an important meeting, but I will add this point. The number of total sites being completed in 2012 is way down. They were initially aiming for 20,000 sites in 2012. NV is a total of 38,000 sites. This may not be a total schedule slip, as they may make it up in 2013. But it is a slip.

 

If I were Sprint, I'd consider changing strategies. Perhaps whole market conversions are not the way with the current schedule. Instead of having four/five crews in each of the markets now, maybe break it up and get two of those crews moving on to another market. Even though it will slow down one market, the other one will start getting deployment early. And more markets can have some sort of LTE coverage.

 

However, I wouldn't slow down Chicago, given their problems. If anything, I would speed that one up.

 

Robert via NOVO7PALADIN Tablet using Forum Runner

 

How many sites do you think they will complete by the end of the year? Steve Elfman is now saying 12,000 with 100-120 million pops covered.

 

Chicago sounds like a mess - you would think that given the situation it would make sense to make completing Chicago a #1 priority.