Posted on 02/29/2008 6:44:37 PM PST by FoxInSocks
Sprint Nextel yesterday reported a $29.45 billion fourth-quarter loss and said legions of subscribers continue to abandon its service, many because they can't pay their bills.
The nation's third-largest wireless carrier last year courted people with poor credit to boost its number of subscribers. Now the company is feeling the pain disproportionately as the economy weakens and consumers default on their debts.
Sprint said it expects 1.2 million wireless subscribers to drop their service in the current quarter, roughly the same number that left in all of 2007. The company offset losses by signing up new customers, but it has steadily lost ground to its two main rivals, Verizon Wireless and AT&T.
<snip>
Sprint yesterday announced its latest effort to recruit more customers, a $99.99 unlimited voice and data plan. Sprint has been searching for ways to differentiate itself from its competitors, much as AT&T got a leg up by making an exclusive deal to carry the Apple iPhone.
Sprint has struggled since it purchased Reston-based Nextel in 2005. The two cultures did not blend well and customers complained about the quality of Sprint's service.
<snip>
He said the company loosened its credit requirements last summer to attract customers with poor or little credit histories. Sprint ended the year with 53.8 million total subscribers, 700,000 more than it had in 2006. It made up for the loss of core monthly contract subscribers by adding less-lucrative prepaid and wholesale accounts.
"We have a lot of subprime customers in our customer base and we were disproportionately hit hard versus other carriers," Hesse said.
<snip>
Analysts referred to Hesse's strategy as a "kitchen sink" approach: presenting the bleakest picture possible in hope of showing progress in the coming months.
<snip>
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
At least the federal government hasn't intervened to save all the poor people from having their latest-and-greatest cell phone service cut off. Yet.
Regarding their newest recruitment idea, I'm skeptical that people will flock to Sprint and and sign up for $100/month contracts, but hey, I'm a simple guy.
As an aside, my own experience with Sprint over the past six years or so has been trouble free. <knock on wood> I've stayed with them primarily because I can't get a comparable rate elsewhere, but I'm starting to wonder (again) how much longer Sprint will be around.
This is almost as good as Circuit City. They fired their sales force and then wondered why sales plummeted.
Just damn! Does this mean the NASCAR cup will be changing it’s name again next year!!!
They need a unliminted 25 dollar plan.
I am from the Overland Park Kansas area where Sprint has its prison looking headquarters and I can tell you this—it is a very poorly managed company and people are leaving not because they cannot pay the bills but because they can’t get service in many locations.........it makes them upset..........
Maybe if these phone companies offered decent rates and didn't try to lock people in, they wouldn't have to dig for people with bad credit.
Didnt Sprint just make a huge acquisition of another carrier a little while ago? I would think purchasing that would make its debt for the quarter look alot worse than what it really is.
My problem with Sprint was their tech support. Everytime I called I got someone in Bangladesh who couldn’t speak English.
I also don’t like the fact that anytime I change my plan they extend my contract. They need to let me roll over my minutes too maybe. Something different.
They try to keep their customers by not letting them get out of their contracts instead of offering something to stay.
I had dozens of cellphones in the hands of our auditors, and if there were any problems at all (which would arise internally at the special sites where the organization made payments) Sprint made itself IMPOSSIBLE TO CONTACT.
It seemed to be their attitude that the only purpose customers had was to perfectly meld with their billing cycle and just shut up.
That, of course, was the wrong way to treat a federal agency with its own armed officers of the law, but they didn't care.
I doubt they've improved.
It's good they will soon disappear from "the corporate world". Bwahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
In my limited experience of 38 years of Corporate endurance ‘short run’ is usually rewarded far more than long term gains.
The Japanese have done the opposite since perhaps the 50s.
Just sayin’
In my limited experience of 38 years of Corporate endurance ‘short run’ is usually rewarded far more than long term gains.
The Japanese have done the opposite since perhaps the 50s.
Just sayin’
They bought Nextel in 05. ALL of the resulting ripples from that should have settled by now.
And Sprint service continues to suck.
I'm very happy with VZW and wouldn't think of switching.
After Altel gets bought and auctioned off, I think Sprint will be the next to fall. That will leave AT&T and VZW with room for one more, possibly a Google type venture. Any thoughts?
Wish I knew how the double posts get there...
:-(
You forgot that we still have TMobile. And since that’s owned by the German government, I doubt it’s going away.
AT&T had too many stores in too many places. They needed to close down at least half of them - and they’ve done so. For example, you don’t need three AT&T stores in a 3/4 mile radius.
I’ll tell you what my store sells sprint phones and their credit requirements are ridiculously lax. I qualify for five lines no spending limit and no deposit and I work part time and go to college.
Then I see customers who need to put down 250 dollars per line. How do you possibly screw your credit up to the point where that happens? It genuinally baffles me.
The side benefit to croporate lines is that families who have a corporate phone usually switch to be "in network" with the parents, etc.
Do you mean companies look for short-term gains to the detriment of long-term growth? I have a military background, not a corporate background.
Just askin'. :-)
Yes, most do, and it shows.
Them quarter profits reign!!!
Glad I am on my way out of that mentality.
Just research how the Japanese took on the automotive and steel industries: long term goals.
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