Sprint loses fewer customers, but more money than expected

Has Sprint finally stopped the bleeding? Well, maybe not stopped it, but stemmed the flow a little? The company has been working hard to introduce new products, and improve their customer service to dig their way out of the hole they’re in. Recent changes in their business, and in the wireless world in general, may not be enough to lift them out of their number three position behind Verizon and AT&T, respectively, but this could be the beginning of an upward swing.

Sprint has been steadily losing customers for some time now, many of them defecting to AT&T and Verizon, most likely to join the ranks of smartphone users who need larger, more extensive networks to accommodate data use. Sprint has been working on expanding its network, and offers 4G service in many areas, but it still lags behind the other two wireless carriers in network size.

In its fourth quarter earnings report, the company stated it lost 504,000 subscribers. But when prepaid and wholesale customers are taken into account, the number drops dramatically to just 148,000 customers.

Lost customers translate to lost revenue, and while the number of customers leaving the service was reduced, revenue was lower than expected, coming in at $7.87 billion, as opposed to the $8.03 the company anticipated.

Sprint is also working to reduce the rate at which customers leave the service, which could be called turnover, but that the wireless industry refers to as churn. The company’s churn rate was down to 2.11 percent, an improvement over the 2.16 percent at the same time the previous year.

These improvements, though marginal, could signal a coming turnaround for Sprint, but they still have a lot of work to do. Recent implementation of questionable fees, and the customer dissatisfaction they brought about, are just one indication that the company needs to step things up a bit more if they want to hold onto their remaining loyal subscribers.

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