Telecom Lead America: Driven by wireless income, Sprint
Nextel has posted 5 percent increase in revenue at $8.7 billion in the first
quarter of 2012 against $8.3 billion in Q1 2011.
Sprint’s wireless service revenues were $7.2 billion during
the quarter, an increase of 7 percent year-over-year, driven by Sprint platform
postpaid ARPU growth of $4.03.
It reported a net loss of $863 million in the first
quarter of 2012 against a net loss of $439 million in the first quarter of
2011.
The company reported subscriber additions of nearly 1.1
million during the first quarter, bringing total ending subscribers to 56
million.
The number of customers grew 4 percent sequentially
including 263,000 postpaid net subscriber additions, 870,000 prepaid net
subscriber additions and 785,000 wholesale and affiliate net subscriber
additions.
Sprint recorded more than 1.5 million iPhone sales in the
first quarter with 44 percent going to new customers.
The continuing revenue growth on the Sprint platform, which
represents the future of our company, driven by record ARPU improvement and
strong net subscriber growth, contributed to our Adjusted OIBDA performance of
$1.2 billion,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO.
Sprint’s Capex stood at $800 million in the quarter, compared
to $555 million in the first quarter of 2011 and $900 million in Q4 2011.
Wireless Capex was $710 million in the first quarter of
2012, compared to $449 million in the first quarter of 2011 and $774 million in
the fourth quarter of 2011.
Sprint invested approximately $315 million for Network
Vision program and approximately $250 million in data capacity related to both
legacy network and Network Vision equipment.
Wireline Capex was $45 million in the first quarter of
2012, compared to $53 million in the first quarter of 2011 and $34 million in
the fourth quarter of 2011.
Corporate capital expenditures were $45 million in the
first quarter of 2012, compared to $53 million in the first quarter of 2011 and
$92 million in the fourth quarter of 2011, primarily related to IT
infrastructure to support wireless and wireline businesses.
Sprint expects to launch 4G LTE in six major cities by
mid-year 2012 including Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Atlanta, Kansas City and
Baltimore.
