USA based Sprint Nextel has announced a deeper net loss of US$767 million for the third quarter of this year, a significant decline on the US$301 million lost a year ago. Sprint's third quarter 2012 results include accelerated depreciation of $397 million (pre-tax), primarily related to Network Vision, including the expected shutdown of the Nextel platform.
Revenues were up by 6 percent though at US$7.3 billion.
The company is currently in the midst of an agreed takeover bid by Japan's Softbank.
The company served nearly 56 million customers at the end of the third quarter of 2012. This includes 32.1 million postpaid subscribers (29.8 million on the Sprint platform and 2.3 million on the Nextel platform), 15.4 million prepaid subscribers (14.6 million on the Sprint platform and 800,000 on the Nextel platform) and 8.4 million wholesale and affiliate subscribers, all of whom utilize the Sprint platform.
Sprint recorded approximately 1.5 million iPhone sales in the third quarter with 40 percent representing new customers. The company also surpassed 1 million LTE smartphones sold prior to the launch of iPhone 5.
"The Sprint platform performed well, with strong net subscriber additions, record third quarter postpaid and prepaid churn and robust revenue growth, contributing to Adjusted OIBDA of $1.28 billion even as we continue to invest in Network Vision and position the company for future growth," said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO. "As a result, we believe we will slightly exceed the top of the range of our recently increased Adjusted OIBDA forecast."
Sprint's Network Vision initiative continues to gain momentum. The number of sites that are either ready for construction or already underway has more than doubled in the last three months to more than 13,500. Leasing and zoning have been completed on more than 20,000 sites. To date nearly 4,300 sites are on-air and meeting speed and coverage enhancement targets. Recent weekly construction starts are up over 250 percent from the second quarter. Sprint however expects to bring 12,000 sites on air approximately one quarter later than originally planned.
