Sprint Gains 491,000 Customers During Most Recent Quarter

Price cuts are enticing and all, but a deal that promises to cut your phone bill in half is even better. This was proven by Sprint, whose recent promotional deal that offered to lower the bills of subscribers of competitor carriers (Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and T-Mobile) by half if these customers choose to switch to Sprint’s network has allowed it attract loads of new customers during the final quarter of 2015. 

Sprint may be considered the fourth largest wireless carrier in the United States, but it can not quite shake off the public perception that it falls behind the rest of the Big Four in terms of reliability of network and reach of coverage. This may unfair to the wireless carrier who, over the past few quarters, have expended much effort in upgrading the quality of network and ramping up the speed of its connection. 

Still, its cut your phone bill in half promo has shown that people are willing to ignore public perception in order to enjoy some savings. Sprint’s deal was introduced back in November of last year, but was actually sort of a revival of another earlier deal made in 2014 and offered to Verizon Wireless and AT&T customers. The difference is that for the 2015 deal, the wireless carrier made the offer available to T-Mobile’s current subscribers. 

The move may have paid off because for the last quarter of 2015, Sprint managed to add 491,000 customers. More significantly, the wireless carrier gained 501,000 postpaid subscribers, the biggest growth Sprint has registered in the last four years. Not only do these customers tend to spend more, they are also more likely to stay on their accounts. It should be noted that Q4 2015 is only the second quarter in more than a couple of years that Sprint has gained postpaid subscribers. 

However, promotional deals do cost a lot of money to market to the masses. Partly because of this, Sprint registered a loss amounting to $836 million, or $0.21 per share, on revenue of $8.11 billion. Wall Street’s forecasts were losses of $0.25 per share and revenue of $8.23 billion. By any measure, the latest numbers are still an improvement over figures of the same period last year, wherein Sprint posted a loss in the amount of $2.38 billion, or $0.60 per share. As for Sprint’s customer turnover rate, it dropped to 1.62 percent, which is better than the 2.3 percent churn rate it registered during the same period in the previous year.