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 ...
Sprint's service has always been great for me. Especially when traveling.
But recently I've had problems. Namely getting messages 2 or 3 days late etc. That's ridiculous.
After my contract expired Sprint renewed it without my consent and tacked on $200 fee penalty per line (2 lines = $400) if I try to leave before the new "contract" expires.
I’ve heard MetroPCS has people waiting hours for messages and sometimes up to 24 hours but never days. Wow! hope they were not business related messages that cost you/your company profits.
You would be stunned at how many companies do this. Stunned. "Expenses are too high. Fire the sales force." How incredibly stupid.
There is a great New Yorker cartoon about that: expensively dressed executives in the boardroom with the plunging sales chart.
Subprime Phones!??!!??
I heard NASCAR has so much trouble keeping CUP promoters, Winston, Nextell, Sprint, they are going to finalize on “the Clinton Cup Series”; It’s impossible to ever get rid of the Clintons.
Stop double clicking!
This is distressing. When Sprint first came into business one of their initial programs was the Free And Clear $15/mo for 100 minutes. I still have it and it will have to be pried from my cold dead fingers unless Sprint goes under.
Many times over the last 10 years they have tried to woo me off it with new phones coupled with other programs of course. Thanks but no thanks.
More like crappy service is causing their loss of customers.
They must have meant million not billion. Math nor money was ever a communist Washington Post writer strong suit.
I’ve been a Sprint customer for about the last 10 years. Maybe I’m just easy to please, but I’ve always been happy with my service. Especially when my co-workers with Verizon and AT&T are always complaining about their lousy data signal.
To each his own, I guess.
Reality is that there were probably many idiots out there paying their phone bills with their super high interest credit cards. Eventually such a house of cards will fall when the wind blows.
I can verify that for you. I used to work for them as a contractor. They have a pathetically run operation that has a bureaucracy that is comparable in efficiency and competence to the federal government.
Too bad Sprint didn’t go for the iPhone. Cingular was Apple’s LAST choice, bit no one else had the vision.
Everyone else wanted to cripple the phone, make every feature extra cost, and charge by the minute.
The loss amount was correct, however the full article clarified that most of it was related to the company’s decision to write down much of the remaining value of the Nextel purchase. This was mostly an accounting move by the new management to put past decisions behind and clear the path for their restructuring plan.
They can sublet the space to Starbucks.
They are also dinosaurs who will go away. Sadly, there is a reason ATT has been around for a century. They aren’t stupid.
I has sprint. And their service sucked and so did their phones. And I had a 6700 PPC when it was brand new. Hated it for all the two years I carried it.
Especially Verizon. They are the worst nickel-and-dimers in the business. They took what was a pretty cool phone for its time, the v710, and totally crippled all its best features in order to line their pockets with fees from their crappy proprietary ringtones and games etc. It put such a bad taste in my mouth that I was eager to jump to AT&T as soon as they came out with the iPhone. I hate Verizon and will never go back. The company defines penny ise and pound-foolish.
--ccm
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