Sprint has decided to cut its investment towards network related Capex (capital expenditure) to $3 billion in fiscal 2016 against $4.08 billion in fiscal 2015 and $4.86 billion in fiscal 2014.
The SoftBank company has already slashed its network related investment to $577 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2016 from $869 million in the same quarter previous year.
“Capex, excluding indirect channel device leases, will be approximately $3 billion, as non-network expenditures are expected to decline and more of the cash outlays related to network densification are expected to be incurred in fiscal year 2017,” said Sprint.
“The company’s deep spectrum position and its small cell focused densification are also expected to improve overall capital efficiency,” said Sprint.
Total LTE coverage now reaches nearly 300 million people, including approximately 70 percent being covered by the 2.5 GHz spectrum deployment.
Sprint has added 22,000 postpaid customers in the March quarter of 2016, while rival Verizon Wireless lost 8,000 and AT&T lost 363,000. T-Mobile US added 877,000 postpaid phone customers during the same period. Sprint added 438,000 postpaid phone subscribers in its fiscal year ended March 31.
Sprint revenue from services and devices fell 3 percent to $8,107 million from $8,071 million in Q4 and dipped 7 percent to $32,180 million from $32,180 million. Out of this, service revenue decreased to $6,574 million from $6,683 million in Q4 and dropped to $27,174 million from $29,542 million in fiscal 2016.
The revenue dip in Q4 was mostly driven by higher leasing revenue, helped offset lower wireless and wireline service revenue, while the decline in fiscal 2016 was largely due to Brightstar sourcing some devices in Sprint’s indirect channels, resulting in less equipment revenues than if Sprint had fulfilled these channels.
Sprint reported net loss of $554 million in the fiscal fourth quarter compared to a net loss of $224 million in the year-ago period. For the full year, net loss was approximately $2 billion compared to a net loss of approximately $3.3 billion in the prior year.
“We significantly reduced our operating expenses and stabilized operating revenues, leading to positive operating income for the first time in nine years. We generated positive postpaid phone net additions for the first time in three years, capped off by surpassing both Verizon and AT&T for the first time on record this quarter,” said Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure.
Baburajan K
