Sprint posts Q3 net loss of $326 million, sees 1.3 million subs leave
By Darren Murph 
posted November 7th 2008 10:45AM
posted November 7th 2008 10:45AM
[Via The New York Times]
posted November 7th 2008 10:45AM
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Yeah, I live in Kansas City and my Aunt was just laid-off at the Sprint HQ, after working for them for 10 or so years. On that note, now that I won't be getting my cell service under the Sprint employee family plan anymore, I can finally switch to a better network. (too bad I'll probably have to pay double what I'm paying now for it)
I think one of sprint's biggest flaws has been it's inability to offer great phones. It was late on getting on the bandwagon when the whole "thin phone" Motorola RAZR thing hit america...and now it's late with providing good touchscreen phones, good qwerty phones, and good phones with higher mpx camera. Not only did AT&T steal the thunder with the iphone, At&T's also a GSM network, and therefore, a LOT of phone makers all over the world try to make Quadband phones, if not additionally tri-band HSDPA so that it can be supported here in North America. How many companies you see trying to churn out CDMA phones?
The only other thing that Sprint could then rely on, was cheap plans. And their plans are pretty much on par with plans offered by other carriers as well. Additionally, AT&T market the hell outta their 3g coverage, while sprint has the barely known Ev-do rev whatchamacallit. Sprint needs to start making better ads, phones, and try to get some phones with GSM technology incorporated into the phones. The new ads by sprint are just ridiculously boring!
When we left Sprint, customer service (or lack) was a -primary- cause. Recent defectors tell me that it hasn't improved. Verizon's cust service is much better. Cell coverage is also much better now in more areas.
Regarding Canada usage? With Verizon, 27min's of Canadian roaming was $62/month. By contrast Rogers (which had bought sprint in canada) charges for roaming in the states was much less (~approx $15), and Telus was about the same.
I'm not sure why the difference in price and/or cost..
Sprint's problems are: (1) their phone line really suck, especially for the standard feature phones and Blackberrys. I have never seen them getting the hottest phone. You may argue about the HTC PDAs but they target a small market only. Instinct was OK but not enough. Sprint should revamp its old-lady image and become more fashionable in phone selections. By the way, what's up with the latest phone naming? Names like "Rumor", "Rant" doesn't sound good at all, at least to me.
(2) Customer service. You know it when you are a customer of Sprint. Long wait time (except for retention) and inconsistent answers.
(3) Advertising. I feel that all carrier commercials suck. But the black and white Sprint CEO one really sucks a**. I liked the previous "sprint ahead" series much more.
Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen anyone with a Samsung Instinct. How are they selling?
Well if they would put together a network on which you could reliably make and receive calls that might be a good first step and retaining customers...
Wait, is this a joke?
Sprint is actually surprised?
Don't kid yourself. Apple and AT&T are WIPING THE FLOOR with every other carrier. 2/3 of all iphone users are people who changed from another carrier. And now Sprint releases a story that they are loosing millions of customers? Where the F do you think they are going? hahahahaha
I left Sprint for Alltel years ago. My decion was two fold: Alltel had much better pricing and their customer service/ tech support is far superior to Sprint. Only thing Sprint ever did for me was add a line without my consent then charge me to remove it! I'm not surprised in the slightest that they're losing customers and money.
NOTE TO SPRINT, GET GSM SIM CARDS! duuuhhhh
All cell phone carriers are garbage, there really isn't any point in defending any of them.
They all overcharge you and ripp you off with hidden fees. Verizon is the worst at that.
Wow $.40 for a text message without a texting plan, thanks Verizon!! you are so great.
Customers allowed cell carriers to charge them insane fees. $50 for a base plan to operate a two way radio. We all should throw our cell phones in the trash. When you can get 500 or more channels of video streamed into your house for less than making a few phone calls you know something is rotten.
It's all "flavor of the month" with these clowns. The ONLY reason AT&T is in any better situation than any other provider is because of the stupid iPhone and the millions of stupid people that bought it. That and the whole Cingular-->AT&T thing seems to have been more strategic than people give it credit for. Sprint's Nextel merger is a joke.
but yes, from a consumer perspective, there is no difference between carriers with the exception of "hot" MTV nation phones (read: hot does not mean good). Cingular-->AT&T has been leading that game for a while now.
HAH! Those commercials are awful, but I've been happy w/ my Sprint wireless (Narrow Band).
Its kinda funny that a small phone company like MetroPcs that offers unlimited plans can which Sprint customers with there old phone..... Good Bye Sprint ! We had enough of your BS!
Yeah, Sprint NEEDS to get new phones - a phone they can hype as the Bold and Storm.. what kind of smart phones do they have now? A "Brand New" Curve, HTC phones (which stink, just ask any Slingbox user), and so on. They need to get a new Blackberry of their own, and something that is truly hypeable. And also, their plan rates are amazing compared to other services, and they should advertise that too- they have high speed internet and true unlimited data plans - no caps, for dirt cheap, even without SERO.
And by the way, I definately work like 10 feet from that Sprint Store in the photo.. that's by Bryant Park in NYC...
I have to disagree with your statement about HTC phones, and Slingbox. My current phone is a HTC Touch Pro, and my prior phone was a HTC PPC-6700. Both phones run Slingbox mobile flawlessly via the cell connection, and WiFi. The Touch Pro has fast GPS, a fantastic screen, runs all my critical legacy WM programs without problems, and most importantly, it has a physical qwerty keyboard.
"HTC phones (which stink, just ask any Slingbox user)"
I can only assume that you are not one.
There was a huge thing with HTC and Slingbox regarding the Mogul, Tilt and Touch (possibly more, but that's the ones I know of)... Basically they refused to release drivers to allow for directdraw to work reliably for the chip they used. Due to this, performance was sluggish all around, especially with Slingplayer. Luckily Sling finally came out with a new version of the Slingplayer that allows you to disable Directdraw to fix this issue, since HTC didn't do crap. I don't trust HTC at ALL after this.
For more info:
http://www.sprintusers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=153762
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/23/poll-how-did-htc-mishandle-the-video-driver-controversy/3
http://www.slingcommunity.com/forum/thread/23216/slingbox-pro-and-Sprint-Mogul--HTC-/?page=1
Btw, this is Steve (engadget shut off the aim sign on so I used a different account), and yes, I am an avid Slingbox user.. just had to deal with many months of crap cause of HTC
the point being that a phone does not "stink" (overall generalization) simply because of bad compatibility with a niche' application. You want to talk about getting kicked in the balls over incompatibility? How about Sprint not working with Microsoft to bring NFL Live to WinMo devices? The advertising promises of NFL Live "free with any data plan" played a distinct role in my switch from AT&T to Sprint (I wanted a Diamond first and foremost, and I pay less than 1/2 of what an iPhone user pays per month).
I live in Kansas, so Sprint surviving is a big deal to me and Kansas as a whole. It does a lot for the Kansas economy and recruit heavily from Kansas Colleges (I am currently at one.) I think Sprints biggest mistake is not going to the GSM/LTE path. After Verizon dumps the old stuff, Sprint is going to have trouble getting phones made for the apparent dead technology. Make a GSM phone, and billions of people can buy it and use it on a magnitude of networks. Make a EV-DO phone, and some people, in the US, on Sprint can use it. What would you pick? I don't understand the whole WiMax thing, but all I know is its not the standard, and to win, its probably best to stick with the standard. I would be with Sprint if I could use my iPhone on their network (Sprints coverage in Kansas is incredible, for obvious reasons, High Speed data in literally the middle of nowhere.)
Also, getting in on the Android thing probably would be smart. Its the next best thing past the iPhone, even, dare I say it, has the ability to have more of an impact than the iPhone. Get an exclusive Android phone, and you will have people flocking.
I live in Kansas, so Sprint surviving is a big deal to me and Kansas as a whole. It does a lot for the Kansas economy and recruit heavily from Kansas Colleges (I am currently at one.) I think Sprints biggest mistake is not going to the GSM/LTE path. After Verizon dumps the old stuff, Sprint is going to have trouble getting phones made for the apparent dead technology. Make a GSM phone, and billions of people can buy it and use it on a magnitude of networks. Make a EV-DO phone, and some people, in the US, on Sprint can use it. What would you pick? I don't understand the whole WiMax thing, but all I know is its not the standard, and to win, its probably best to stick with the standard. I would be with Sprint if I could use my iPhone on their network (Sprints coverage in Kansas is incredible, for obvious reasons, High Speed data in literally the middle of nowhere.)
Losing customers? Sprint, ever heard of LOWERING PRICES to attract customers from your competitors?
OMG WHAT A CRAZY IDEA!!!
Jeez, these execs never get it.
i think sprint's problem is that there not realible, my cousin has them and i had nextel when you call customer service they are horrible, they don't care about your problems. there coverage map shows them as having coverage everywhere if you PAY for ROAMING, my cousin pays for roaming she doesn't get service everywhere and if she does is barely enough to maintain a phone call ( NYC) . i switched to at&t from t-mobile because t-mobile isn't that realiable either i never got service in my house but with at&t i have 5 bars. and i go upstate to ski and t-mobile doesnt have coverage in rural areas at&t does have coverage, t-mobile and sprint are cheaper but you get what you pay for.
Man I hope Wi-Max can save Sprint. I like Sprint. I've been with them since 2001. They are the original Mobile Internet Access for a Great Price. I love my Sprint Touch(I can do so much on this phone), loved my A900 and my A620. Maybe they can work a deal with MS to release WinMo 7 exclusively on Sprint for a year. I'd love to have a Touch Pro or an Touch HD type of Device with WinMo7 and Sprint Speed. :)
Whoops forgot part of my comment. My computer crashed.
I also wanted to state how they've had solid releases on their Handsets for the past few years from LG, Samsung, Sanyo, Palm and now HTC. The Instinct despite what the haters say was a hit. The marketing for it is great and I'd love to see Sprint do more of these types of ads for other phones.
While I'm fuzzy on this whole good bad thing.....I do believe that this falls into the "BAD" category and in caps as well.
That's what I'm talking about. Nobody wants a walkie talkie anymore. How about their CEO bragging some stupid stuff recently, anybody remember that.
Hey,
I sent my comment but it wasn't posted...wuz up with that?
here it is again
Die Sprint Die. They screwed me over for over 6 years...I spent
lavishly on 4 phones with contract renewals and NO REBATES on any of
the phones. I did my part to return the postcards, rebate paperwork,
call and send messages...I worked and worked to get the rebates, and
finally gave up on their hollow promises to "resolve the issue".
Along the way, they routinely crammed my bill with unwanted services,
hoping I wouldn't notice, I routinely got "cut off" while being
transferred to another dept. or supervisor of their foreign customer
service dept. At times I spent more than 2 hours arguing the charges
that never should have appeared in the first place. And many many
"dropped" calls and signal fade that were never reimbursed, due to a
"known problem...we're looking into it" .The logo got prettier, the
TV ads more frequent, but my service never improved. We have left
Sprint...3 phones are out of "contract" and one has a month to go.
They'll not get a penny more of my money. I'm happy with AT&T -
iPhones rock - so far.