Sprint Q2 2013 results: $1.6 billion loss, record high ARPU

Final iDEN shutdown and Network Vision investments continue to hurt the bottom line

Sprint has posted its Q2 2013 earnings, and amidst a whole bunch of changes for the nation's third-largest carrier it has a big of a mixed bag in terms of earnings. Here are the highlights for Sprint this quarter:

• $8.87 billion operating revenues, up slightly year-over-year
• $1.6 billion net loss and$874 operating loss for the quarter
• $7.2 billion in wireless service revenue, up 8-percent y-o-y
• Record high postpaid ARPU of $64.20
• Net postpaid subscriber additions for the 13th consecutive quarter

In terms of income, it's just more of the same for Sprint -- big losses and basically stable revenues quarter-over-quarter. Much of the losses can be attributed to extra costs with its Network Vision projects and shutdown of the iDEN network, but in the end Sprint just isn't pulling in enough revenue to be profitable and it's far from that break-even point.

As for that Network Vision project that they are spending so much money on, Sprint says that it now has LTEin 151 cities nationwide. To date more than 20,000 network sites are on air with the new improvements, and Sprint expects to cover 200 million people with LTEby the end of 2013.

While it added postpaid customers for the 13th quarter in a row, Sprint's overall customer numbers dropped due to the final loss of Nextel customers and slight dips in prepaid and wholesale customers. Luckily Sprint's gains are in the customers it earns the most from, now at an ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) of $64.20.

Financials for the quarter aside, Sprint is happy to announce that it has closed its sale toSoftBank, its transaction to buyClearwireas well as its purchase of spectrum from U.S. Cellular. After this long road of fluctuating circumstances, Sprint is hoping to get back on its feet to challenge the other three big carriers and gain some subscribers.

Source: Sprint

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