With it now being April, it is expected that much of the news will be filled with results from the first quarter. In fact that has already happened with a number of companies declaring their current financial stance and outlook going forward. However, when it comes to the big four carriers in the U.S., all of their details will become much clearer over the next couple of weeks with Verizon expected to kick off proceedings on April 21. Speaking of which, Evercore ISI analysts are now detailing what they expect the four carriers to announce before the end of April.
Starting with Verizon and while Evercore do expect Verizon to report a 4.6-percent decline year over year, they also make the point that thanks to their Equipment Installation Plan (EIP), Verizon’s Edge, they also expect Verizon to report improved churn rates, as well as better than expected margins. Overall, it seems to be a similar mixed bag for AT&T with Evercore expecting AT&T to record a dropping of 23-percent year over year for net subscriber adds, while also noting a significant increase in net postpaid adds, up from 98,000 a year ago to 300,000 for the last quarter.
According to Evercore, T-Mobile is where the real momentum will be seen though, as they now expect the company to predict better than expected results and largely thanks to a combination of their various additional services like Binge On & Music Freedom and their aggressive pricing. As a result, Evercore are predicting T-Mobile will announce postpaid net adds in the region of 925,000. An aspect which the analysts are also expecting to continue going forward. Moving to the now fourth positioned U.S. Carrier, Sprint, and the predictions are possible the most interesting. While Evercore do expect Sprint to announce negative results for the quarter, they also comment on Sprint’s ability to continue gaining capital. An aspect which although not a positive one will allow the carrier to continue functioning in the near-term and avoid bankruptcy. A prime example of Sprint’s ability to “creatively attract new capital” came last week when Sprint effectively announced it will begin the selling and leaseback of its network to secure 2.2 billion in funding. Although, this is a move which has also recently been declared by other analysts as a risky one.