Sprint added a net 1.2 million new mobile customers in its fiscal fourth quarter, enabling it to cling on to the number three spot in the U.S. market, but its financial results for the period were less than stellar.
The U.S. operator’s new customer additions took its overall base to 57.14 million as of the end o f March, enabling it to retain its lead over aggressive rival T-Mobile, which ended the period with 56.84 million customers.
But Sprint is also behaving aggressively when it comes to building its customer base, a policy that took its toll on its bottom line.
The operator posted a net loss of $224 million, wider than its $151 million loss in the year-ago quarter, while operating income fell by 24% to $318 million.
A 7% slide in operating revenues to $8.28 billion came on the back of a decline in mobile service revenues. Adjusted EBITDA fell by 5% to $1.7 billion.
But for CEO Marcelo Claure, it was all about the customer growth.
"I am proud of the team for successfully executing the first phase of our strategy to stop the decline in customers," he said, in a statement. "We are now one quarter into the second phase, focusing on attracting more quality customers, retaining our customers through a better customer experience and continuously improving the network."
Claure added that net adds on the Sprint platform "were the highest in nearly three years" and highlighted an improvement in postpaid churn.
Postpaid churn stood at 1.84% in the quarter, down from 2.30% in the previous quarter and 2.11% a year ago. Prepaid churn also improved, coming in at 3.84%.
Of the telco’s 1.2 million net additions, 211,000 were postpaid connections, 546,000 prepaid, and 492,000 wholesale.
On the postpaid side, 349,000 tablet net additions offset 201,000 phone customer losses.
