Sprint reported that it had the most subscriber growth since 2005 by adding more than 1.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2011. Sprint now serves over 55 million subscribers; 33 million of those are postpaid and just less than 15 million or on a pre-paid basis. Throughout the fourth quarter, Sprint also said they sold over 1.8 million iPhones, 40 percent of those going to brand new customers on the Sprint network. The fourth quarter report also included a sad note in that the company lost just over $1.3 billion even though Sprint had over $8.7 billion in net revenue.
With the announcement of the fourth quarter results, Sprint also announced the company was adding more markets to their LTE network this year. Right now, Baltimore and Kansas City have been added to the list of markets to get the 4G LTE network by the middle of 2012. Sprint already has Dallas, Atlanta, Houston and San Antonio on that same list. Because Baltimore and Kansas City will be getting the 4G LTE network, the existing 3G network will also be getting an upgrade. The company will be announcing the earnings and subscriber numbers with the 2011 fourth quarter earnings call today.
Sprint CEO, Dan Hesse said, “Our strong fourth quarter performance illustrates the power of matching iconic devices like the iPhone with our simple, unlimited plans and industry-leading customer experience and during the past year, Sprint added more than 5 million net new customers and grew wireless service revenue by more than 5 percent, including 17 percent for the Sprint platform. This momentum gives us confidence as we execute our Network Vision upgrade and 4G LTE roll-out.” Sprint is also growing in the pre-paid sector adding more than 500,000 pre-paid customers in the fourth quarter, which is an increase of 20 percent since the end of 2010.
Sprints desire to expand the new 4G LTE network and improved on the existing 3G networks in paying off for the company. Sprint plans to have over 12,000 sites switched on to 4G LTE in 2012 with the rest of the “Sprint Network Vision” initiative rollout to complete in 2013. Sprint has also improved their customer satisfaction and first calls resolution scores for the fourth consecutive year. In the fourth quarter, Sprint received the North American Customer Value Enhancement of the Year Award in the Machine to Machine Communications market.
