Sprint posts Q4 loss, wireless customers fleeing

February 19, 2009, 02:46 PM —  Network World — 

Sprint was in trouble before the recession struck, so it’s not surprising that the company isn’t getting a boost from the current economic climate.

In its quarterly earnings report released Thursday, Sprint reported net losses of US$1.6 billion for Q4, a sharp decline from the $29.3 billion in losses that it reported in Q4 2007. For the year, Sprint lost $2.8 billion, down from the $29.8 billion it lost in 2007.

The major reason for Sprint’s massive loss in 2007 was a $29 billion write-off of the 2005 Nextel buyout.

In addition to its large net losses for the quarter, Sprint reported losing another 1.2 million wireless subscribers in Q4, nearly matching the 1.3 million wireless customers it lost in Q3. For the year, Sprint lost a total of 4.6 million wireless customers, bringing the company’s total number of wireless subscribers to 49.3 million. The company’s postpaid wireless segment accounted for most of the damage, as Sprint lost 4 million postpaid subscribers in 2008. Sprint’s postpaid subscribers account for roughly three-fourths of its total wireless subscriber base.

Sprint announced in January that it planned to lay off 8,000 of its workers by this March, a move that the company said would save it $1.2 billion annually. The company is also trying to stabilize its finances through suspending its 401(k) match program for 2009, freezing salaries throughout the year and suspending its tuition reimbursement program.

Network World

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

I like it!
Close

On Twitter now

sprint

Powered by Twitter
You are logged in | Sign out
Sign in and post to Twitter

What are you thinking?

Cancel Tweet sent

On Twitter now

Post a comment
The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
peer-to-peer

Esther Schindler
If the comments are ugly, the code is ugly

claird
SVG a graphics format for 21st century

pasmith
Take Chrome OS for a test spin

Sandra Henry-Stocker
Solaris Tip: Have Your Files Changed Since Installation?

sjvn
64-bits of protection?

jfruh
Android fragments vs. the iPhone monolith

mikelgan
What Gizmodo missed about the Pro WX Wireless USB disk drive

 

Sidekick: The Good News & the Bad News
Either way you look at it Microsoft Data Center management did not follow standards or best practices in this failure. In which case it makes me wonder more about the outsourcing of corporate data much less personal data.
- mburton325

Join the conversation here

The Daily Tip

The Daily TipQuick, practical advice for IT pros. Made fresh daily.

Hot tips:

Want to cash in on your IT savvy? Send your tip to tips@itworld.com. If we post it, we'll send you a $25 Amazon e-gift card.

Newsletters

Subscribe to ITWORLD TODAY and receive the latest IT news and analysis.

I would like to receive offers via email from ITworld partners.
By clicking submit you agree to the terms and conditions outlined in ITworld's privacy policy.
Featured Sponsor

AISO founders envisioned a Web hosting company that was environmentally friendly. While the company employed energy-efficient innovations like solar panels, its infrastructure produced unacceptable power and cooling requirements. Find out how AISO leveraged AMD technology to overcome their challenge in this case study white paper.

In this whitepaper, Scalar explores the opportunity to change the landscape with respect to mission critical databases built around Oracle. Leveraging technologies such as Linux, high-end commodity processing power and Oracle RAC technology to architect, design, build and maintain database infrastructure that delivers maximum availability, reliability and performance at a fraction of traditional cost.

On a typical day, weather.com, the Web site for The Weather Channel in Atlanta, serves up between 15 million and 20 million page views. But in September 2004, when back-to-back hurricanes ransacked Florida, the peak traffic on one day more than tripled: over 70 million page views by more than 7 million unique visitors. Read the full success story now.

Marketplace