Q4 2013 results

[bigsnake49]

 

• Fourth quarter Operating Loss improved 22 percent to $576 million; Adjusted EBITDA* of $1.15 billion improved by nearly 40 percent or more than $300 million year-over-year compared to combined prior year results
  • Combined annual Operating Loss of $1.9 billion
  • Annual Adjusted EBITDA* of $5.4 billion grew 13 percent year-over-year

• Highest-ever annual Sprint platform wireless service revenue of $28.6 billion grew more than 5 percent year-over-year
  • Fourth quarter Sprint platform wireless service revenue of $7.2 billion grew year-over-year for the 15th consecutive quarter
  • Best-ever annual Sprint platform postpaid ARPU of $64.07
• Highest-ever Sprint platform subscribers at 53.9 million
  • 682,000 total Sprint platform net additions in the fourth quarter
  • 58,000 Sprint platform postpaid net additions in the fourth quarter
• Annual retail smartphone sales of 20.5 million and a record 95 percent of quarterly Sprint platform postpaid handset sales were smartphones
• Continued progress on the Network
  • More than 200 million people covered by 4G LTE
  • Sprint Spark ^TM available in 14 of the largest U.S. cities including today’s launches in Philadelphia and Baltimore
• Launched revolutionary new Sprint Framily^SM that redefines traditional wireless family plans

Comment at will. I guess Robert's source was not reliable after all !

[Terrell352]

That was a HUGE surprise to see that they are already adding subscribers. Make me believe change is finally coming. I know in my area as soon as LTE popped up in November in the actually city limits Sprint started seeing customers again. A few days ago they had a line outside for the framily plan.

[cdk]

 

• Fourth quarter Operating Loss improved 22 percent to $576 million; Adjusted EBITDA* of $1.15 billion improved by nearly 40 percent or more than $300 million year-over-year compared to combined prior year results
  • Combined annual Operating Loss of $1.9 billion
  • Annual Adjusted EBITDA* of $5.4 billion grew 13 percent year-over-year

• Highest-ever annual Sprint platform wireless service revenue of $28.6 billion grew more than 5 percent year-over-year
  • Fourth quarter Sprint platform wireless service revenue of $7.2 billion grew year-over-year for the 15th consecutive quarter
  • Best-ever annual Sprint platform postpaid ARPU of $64.07
• Highest-ever Sprint platform subscribers at 53.9 million
  • 682,000 total Sprint platform net additions in the fourth quarter
  • 58,000 Sprint platform postpaid net additions in the fourth quarter
• Annual retail smartphone sales of 20.5 million and a record 95 percent of quarterly Sprint platform postpaid handset sales were smartphones
• Continued progress on the Network
  • More than 200 million people covered by 4G LTE
  • Sprint Spark ^TM available in 14 of the largest U.S. cities including today’s launches in Philadelphia and Baltimore
• Launched revolutionary new Sprint Framily^SM that redefines traditional wireless family plans

Comment at will. I guess Robert's source was not reliable after all !

 

 

I am assuming the 682000 number includes MVNOs (not that that is a bad thing)....

[Terrell352]

I am assuming the 682000 number includes MVNOs....

Yep it is. Most added subs came from MVNOs

[cdk]

Yep it is. Most added subs came from MVNOs

 

Again, that is good (particularly when they still added post paid customers as well).

[Boosted20V]

Call just started if anyone else wishes to listen.

[cdk]

 

• Fourth quarter Operating Loss improved 22 percent to $576 million; Adjusted EBITDA* of $1.15 billion improved by nearly 40 percent or more than $300 million year-over-year compared to combined prior year results
  • Combined annual Operating Loss of $1.9 billion
  • Annual Adjusted EBITDA* of $5.4 billion grew 13 percent year-over-year

• Highest-ever annual Sprint platform wireless service revenue of $28.6 billion grew more than 5 percent year-over-year
  • Fourth quarter Sprint platform wireless service revenue of $7.2 billion grew year-over-year for the 15th consecutive quarter
  • Best-ever annual Sprint platform postpaid ARPU of $64.07
• Highest-ever Sprint platform subscribers at 53.9 million
  • 682,000 total Sprint platform net additions in the fourth quarter
  • 58,000 Sprint platform postpaid net additions in the fourth quarter
• Annual retail smartphone sales of 20.5 million and a record 95 percent of quarterly Sprint platform postpaid handset sales were smartphones
• Continued progress on the Network
  • More than 200 million people covered by 4G LTE
  • Sprint Spark ^TM available in 14 of the largest U.S. cities including today’s launches in Philadelphia and Baltimore
• Launched revolutionary new Sprint Framily^SM that redefines traditional wireless family plans

Comment at will. I guess Robert's source was not reliable after all !

 

 

I like how they slide in 200 million pop mark and two Spark launches in as well.

[The Dave]

Overall, not bad numbers. Sprint is slowly righting the ship. This should be a good year.

[cdk]

Call just started if anyone else wishes to listen.

 

I can't listen in, but I hope some one on here can provide some highlights!

[Boosted20V]

Hesse is discussing churn due to call drops because of NV. When the network is < 70% complete, churn is largely elevated. Once 70% completed, it levels off to pre-NV levels. When above this threshold, the churn drops below pre-NV levels. Says this is consistent across all markets to date.

[Boosted20V]

Sprint is using hydrogen fuel cells for rooftop sites for backup power and has applied for patents regarding. Did anyone else know this???

[cdk]

Hesse is discussing churn due to call drops because of NV. When the network is < 70% complete, churn is largely elevated. Once 70% completed, it levels off to pre-NV levels. When above this threshold, the churn drops below pre-NV levels. Says this is consistent across all markets to date.

 

This is good since nationwide at least they have past that mark.

[Boosted20V]

 More than 60% of Framily plan customers take the unlimited option.

[cdk]

Sprint is using hydrogen fuel cells for rooftop sites for backup power and has applied for patents regarding. Did anyone else know this???

 

Someone posted an article about this last week. Interesting stuff.

[Boosted20V]

5000 Clearwire sites were converted in Q4, 2000 further legacy Clear sites will be converted in the 1Q. Small cells will begin being deployed later this year. Handsets capable of 2 carrier carrier-aggregation will be released later this year.

[IamMrFamous07]

Can I get a link to listen to the call?

[Boosted20V]

Can I get a link to listen to the call?

  

Go to investors.sprint.com

[digiblur]

Overall, not bad numbers. Sprint is slowly righting the ship. This should be a good year.

 

They admitted the postpaid adds were pretty much all tablets.  I was wondering why they were practically giving those things away.

[Boosted20V]

Sprint has $9.6 Billion in liquidity and plans to spend $8 Billion in capex for 2014.

 

Within the capex projection, most is weighting toward the second half of the year as NV 1.0 spend has trended down as they near completion. The 2.5GHZ build accounts for much of the above investment.

[derrph]

When I saw read the article it seriously made my day. Maybe Sprint should not try to merge with T-Mobile. I think they can stand on their own two feet. It is only up from here and to think everyone thought that T-Mobile was going mull Sprint lol.

[Paynefanbro]

5000 Clearwire sites were converted in Q4, 2000 further legacy Clear sites will be converted in the 1Q. Small cells will begin being deployed later this year. Handsets capable of 2 carrier carrier-aggregation will be released later this year.

 

Yes, yes, 1000x yes!!!!!!!

[Paynefanbro]

You can count on Roger Cheng to play down anything significant Sprint does. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57618698-94/sprint-posts-$1b-in-q4-losses-as-it-ekes-out-customer-gains/

[IamMrFamous07]

I hope the iPhone 6 will support the 2 carrier aggregation

[cdk]

You can count on Roger Cheng to play down anything significant Sprint does. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57618698-94/sprint-posts-$1b-in-q4-losses-as-it-ekes-out-customer-gains/

[Conan Kudo]

Did anyone read the FY 2013 numbers? Across the year, Sprint still lost 2.285 million subscribers. That's pretty astounding.

 

And if it weren't for the tablets, they would have lost 408,000 subscribers for the quarter. The only problem with replacing phone subscribers with tablet ones is that the ARPU is cut in half for those subscribers.