Sprint Q4 Earnings: Loss of $1.32 Billion, Sold 6.6 Million iPhones in 2012

U.S. carrier Sprint has announced its 2012 fourth quarter earnings, with the company reporting a $1.32 billion loss.

The wireless carrier reported fourth-quarter subscriber losses for its Nextel platform, with more than 1 million customers leaving the service. Its core division experienced a loss of 337,000 subscribers. It expects to close down Nextel soon.

Sprint reported a loss of $1.32 billion, or 44 cents per share, an increase from the $1.3 billion, or 43 cents a share, loss it suffered during 2011's Q4. Revenue, though, increased to $9 billion. Analysts expected a per-share loss of 46 cents a share and revenue of $8.92 billion. Full year 2012 net operating revenue stood at $35.3 billion.

The company sold 6.6 million iPhones during 2012, with 2.2 million units being sold in the fourth quarter, of which 38 percent of subscribers were new to the carrier. Overall smartphone sales during Q4 stood at 6.1 million. It's currently awaiting a $20 billion merger with Japan's SoftBank, with the U.S. carrier also attempting to acquire the remaining stake in Internet service provider Clearwire that it doesn't already own.

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  • jgalecio
    Well I saw this coming. I am switching to another carrier when my contract is up in July. I have never had such piss poor coverage in my life until I switched to sprint....
    Reply
  • halcyon
    No surprise at all. I left Sprint as soon as possible. Their data network in the capital of the free world is something they should be ashamed of.
    Reply
  • dgingeri
    The only way they'd be losing this much would be total mismanagement.
    Reply
  • rmmil978
    Unlimited data means nothing when the coverage is terrible. In my area, Verizon is LTE and averages about 5-12 MB download speeds, AT&T is HSPA+ and averages about 5-7 MB download speeds, and Sprint? Oh, about 300-500 Kilobyte download speeds. Yeah, that "awesome" unlimited plan.
    Reply
  • g00fysmiley
    they do definatly need to upgrade their networks i like unlimited data so want to stay with sprint, but in my city on spritn i could swap to verizon but i would be on limited data but on the upside they have 4g service here so that is nice. I want to stick with sprint nex ttime i upgrade btu if there is no 4g in my city by the end of the year i am also jumping ship
    Reply
  • whiteodian
    Wow. How do they stay in business... Sorry to sound like an Ad, but Straight Talk $45 a month unlimited everything on AT&T's network. I am very happy with the service and my happiness goes up being able to stop paying $100 a month to AT&T.
    Reply
  • wardoc22
    I always thought that coverage could not be worse than t-mobile, but after reading the comments, I guess it could :)
    Reply