Sprint Nextel reported positive net adds for the second quarter of this year, first time in three years. Unsurprisingly, the net adds came courtesy of Sprint’s prepaid and wholesale divisions. Total net adds came in at 111,000 subscribers. Sprint lost 228,000 postpaid customers yet gained 173,000 prepaid subscribers and 166,000 wholesale subscribers in the period.
With a recent refresh of the Virgin Mobile offering and national availability of Boost unlimited everything on the CDMA side of the network, Sprint will be looking for the two brands to drive growth. Sprint’s HTC Evo (the nation’s first 4G device) also contributed to reducing losses in postpaid. The companies ARPU went down a notch, however, the churn is at an all time low.
So what’s next for Sprint? A few options: a merger with T-Mobile, which will put the new entity on par with the nation’s two largest carriers, AT&T and Verizon, acquisition of Cricket, further solidifying Sprint’s leadership in prepaid under multiple brands; or an all-out shift towards prepaid while bringing postpaid down to the $50 all-you-can-eat realm.
That said, score another point into the prepaid margin.
