Sprint has been hemorrhaging customers and they seem to be finding it hard to stop the bleeding, having lost another 245,000 contracted users this most recent past quarter. The good news though for sprint is that they have finally stopped losing profits. Sprint’s fiscal first quarter posted a profit for the U.S. third largest wireless carrier as they gained a profit of about $23 million. Sprint has also seen some headaches due to the massive network overhaul that they have been doing for quite some time. Sprint may have a plan to win some of those customer back though and it just might involve them dropping plan prices somewhere in the near future.
According to Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, other carriers in the U.S., strictly speaking AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, are more competitive with plan prices in certain areas. This leaves room for Hesse to make a decision to potentially slash prices in those areas where Sprint is currently not at the forefront. Hesse didn’t exactly mention what or how they would possibly lower prices and to what amount, but he did mention that Group Plan Offerings were a target of focus. Hesse stated that “If you look at where we’ve lost competitive position, there’s more likelihood you’ll see some adjustment there. If you look at family, or what we call Framily group plans, we are more competitive in certain areas than others, and that’s one of the gaps we’re looking to close.”
Sprint’s Framily plans certainly offer some decent choices for consumers but it’s clear that they aren’t competitive enough to keep some subscribers from jumping ship and leaving to a competing carrier. All of this is happening of course right in the middle of the possible merger that Sprint is looking to complete with T-Mobile, an acquisition that all four companies that are involved with are looking to prepare to present in front of regulators, and also a proposed deal that if approved, wouldn’t likely happen till sometime later in the fall at the earliest according to rumors. Sprint could likely do well if a T-Mobile merger was to happen considering T-Mobile’s consecutive quarterly successes, although now they have some official competition as French Telecom company Iliad has now put in a confirmed bid for T-Mobile for $15 Billion.