Sprint Gaining Subscribers

[Insp_Gadget]

Looks like Sprint is now gaining subscribers thanks to its new phones, including the Evo 4G.

Sprint adds 111,000 net subscribers courtesy of HTC Evo

I wonder what the numbers would look like if they weren't still hamstringed with the Nextel network.

 

[Aero]

Looks like Sprint is now gaining subscribers thanks to its new phones, including the Evo 4G..

Backwards. Actually they lost post paid subscribers (the type who can buy EVO) and offset the lost from the smartphone and in-contract segments by gaining in the pre-paid dumbphone market.
Sprint is increasing a pre-paid company. Th only difference in this q results is that the increasing movement to prepaid actually was more than the unending losses of post-paid (eg contract, everything plans).

Spring has less customers edible for EVO than every, it is all there in the actual numbers.

That is why their over all churn (a bad thing) is increasing. If you look their postpaid churn is slightly decreasing (1.85 down from 2.05) but the fact that there are more and more pre-paid who tend to have 3x the churn caused a increase in total average churn.

 

[cr3amy]

I like how you point out that churn is a bad thing but don't explain what churn is then start talking specifics about churn. I don't know what churn is.

Also, looks like their post-paid losses are slowing according to this, so maybe there's a light at the end of the tunnel regarding post-paid.

 

[Yourdogsdead]

So it means that the higher the churn rate the more people are leaving? "Churn rate, when applied to a customer base, refers to the proportion of contractual customers or subscribers who leave a supplier during a given time period", that was the best I can make out of it. So Sprint's churn rate is increasing and they are still losing customers?

 

[cr3amy]

Their churn for postpaid is decreasing, but they didn't say if it's increasing or decreasing for prepaid.

 

[lennyj17]

Backwards. Actually they lost post paid subscribers (the type who can buy EVO) and offset the lost from the smartphone and in-contract segments by gaining in the pre-paid dumbphone market.
Sprint is increasing a pre-paid company. Th only difference in this q results is that the increasing movement to prepaid actually was more than the unending losses of post-paid (eg contract, everything plans).

Spring has less customers edible for EVO than every, it is all there in the actual numbers.

That is why their over all churn (a bad thing) is increasing. If you look their postpaid churn is slightly decreasing (1.85 down from 2.05) but the fact that there are more and more pre-paid who tend to have 3x the churn caused a increase in total average churn.

Actually the people who buy EVO's Sprint had almost 1M in add's....The people who couldn't buy evos..(Those on the dinosaur known as nextel) Sprint lost subs....

Things would be much better for Sprint without the iDen network, which at this point Sprint couldn't give it away.

and how is there churn increasing???? both Prepaid and Post Paid churn decreased...

Q2 2010 Report

 

[rawvega]

Their churn for postpaid is decreasing, but they didn't say if it's increasing or decreasing for prepaid.

Yes, postpaid churn decreased. Prepaid churn also decreased both sequentially and year over year. Thus, since both postpaid and prepaid churn decreased, their overall churn decreased despite what Aero incorrectly stated.

 

[Insp_Gadget]

Yes, Aero's statement didn't make any sense to me.

 

[Menno]

Yes, Aero's statement didn't make any sense to me.

What he's saying is that the reason it shows Sprint adding customers is because they added so many prepaid customers that it offset their losses.

And while Nextel might've been a mistake when it comes to retaining customers, sprint bought nextel for Spectrum (specifically for their 4g tech). And if these customers were going from nextel lines to sprint lines, I don't think this hits churn at all.

Sprint's postpaid churn is still decreasing, but they're adding so few new subscribers (people coming from other carriers) that it still ends up in a net loss. Their prepaid sales are doing well, but prepaid isn't nearly as profitable, and to continue 4g development, they need to add enough post paid customers to compensate for the Churn.

Churn is the number of contracts that end (or are cancelled) during a quarter and those customer either port their numbers out, or stop using them. Churn is the second most important number for most cell companies, behind ARPU (Average Revenue Per Unit, aka average amount of income per contract).

I'm not trying to attack sprint here. They've done an amazing turn around when it comes to coverage and customer service. But now they need to focus on advertising and marketing that fact. Their constant droning about being cheaper won't help them add customers unless customers consider them an equal choice to what they have already.

 

[Aero]

Yes, Aero's statement didn't make any sense to me.

What he's saying is that the reason it shows Sprint adding customers is because they added so many prepaid customers that it offset their losses.

Thanks menno. What I am saying is that you need to parse these quarterlies without recourse to the accompanying spin. And yes iden is part of the issue and shedding it causes financial and subscriber losses. but sprints problems are not all about iDen (nextel).

The company is in a fundamental way changing to a pre paid company. This quarters results REINFORCE that trend. They show that Sprint sprint became more of a prepaid company than ever.

And don't ignore that out of contract post paid are still listed as post paid here. IE their post paid customer numbers do not equal in-contract customer. I am postpaid, but out of contract for four months. That puts me at prime risk and less valuable to sprint than an in-contract post paid. Yet I am still in that quarterly as five lines "post paid"

The fact that sprints standard pricing means that if I wanted to convert three wm6 on my 5 line to a newer "iconic" device means I would have to pay way more is stopping me from renewing. The fact that there is no ala cart for a mix of dumb and smart on family plans means I am in danger of going to iphone. (I am personally not, not but many in my situation would)

Sprints trends are not one step from the grave, more like three. they are nowhere near as rosy as people claim based on the quarterly. To say the problem is iden is kind of like saying the poor persons problem is that they are poor. Iden is post paid! they are not done shedding them it will take a long time of loses.

Please note Sprint is not being clear on progress in some key number here, ceg converting consumers from dumb phones, legacy plans or cheap sero plans to higher ARPU everything. Is that a success? I wonder. I think they would say so if it were not below their expectations. I think they are seeing losses of their own customers are the most cruciual point, conversion to smartphones and premium plans. In the real world the churn is worse. as you get to lower in contract numbers, he calculus of churn makes a small improvement a worse churn than before.

Moreover the implication from the quarterly is that next quarter (the one we are over halfway through) will be better do to full scale evo effect. Really? Where are those evos? People walking into a store to get one and being tuned away several times are perfect iPhone converts.