Sprint Nextel Loses 250,000 Subscribers and $384 Million in Q2

Sprint Nextel has reported second quarter 2009 financial results that included consolidated net operating revenues of US$8.1 billion, down on the 9.06 billion a year ago - and a net loss of US$384 million. The company generated Free Cash Flow of US$676 million in the quarter and US$1.5 billion in the first half of 2009.

"In the second quarter, we made further progress on our efforts to enhance financial stability, improve the customer experience and reinvigorate the brand," said Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel CEO. Hesse added "However, we are not satisfied that we lost a quarter of a million customers in the quarter."

Net Debt decreased by approximately $700 million from the end of the first quarter, to $16.4 billion.

Capital expenditures were $321 million in the quarter, compared to $291 million in the first quarter of 2009 and $646 million in the second quarter of 2008. Included in second quarter 2008 capital expenditures is approximately $100 million in nonrecurring capital expenditures related to the deployment of WiMAX prior to the closing of the Clearwire transaction.

The company served 48.8 million customers at the end of the second quarter of 2009, compared to 49.1 million at the end of the first quarter of 2009. This includes 34.4 million post-paid subscribers (25.1 million on CDMA, 8.3 million on iDEN, and 1.0 million Power Source users who utilize both networks), 5.0 million prepaid subscribers (4.4 million on iDEN and 600,000 on CDMA) and 9.3 million wholesale and affiliate subscribers, all of whom utilize the CDMA network.

For the quarter, total wireless customers declined by approximately 257,000, including net losses of 991,000 post-paid customers - comprising 393,000 CDMA and 598,000 iDEN customers (including a net 69,000 customers who transferred from the iDEN network to the CDMA network). The company gained a net 938,000 prepaid iDEN customers, offset by net losses of 161,000 prepaid CDMA customers. The company also experienced a net loss of 43,000 wholesale and affiliate subscribers.

Sprint Nextel continues to expect that both post-paid and total subscriber full-year losses should improve in 2009 as compared to 2008. In addition, the company expects that fullyear capital expenditures in 2009 will be less than 2008 levels, excluding WiMAX. The company expects to continue to generate positive Free Cash Flow during the remainder of 2009.

Posted to the site on 29th July 2009