Sprint Nextel has reported consolidated revenue of USD35.35 billion for the twelve months ended 31 December 2012, up slightly from USD33.68 billion one year earlier. Revenue generated by the central ‘Sprint’ platform grew from USD23.64 billion to USD27.11 billion, while the legacy Nextel iDEN platform saw sales dwindle from USD3.75 billion to USD1.98 billion during the same period. Sprint’s OIBDA slipped from USD4.97 billion to USD4.72 billion in 2012, while the company reported a net loss of USD4.33 billion, compared to USD2.89 billion in the year-ago period.
In operational terms, Sprint reports that its total subscriber base reached 55.63 million as at 31 December, up from 55.02 million one year earlier. Users of the Sprint platform increased from 48.78 million to 53.54 million year-on-year, while Nextel’s customer base slumped from 6.25 million to 2.09 million during the twelve months under review. In addition, by the start of this year, Sprint claimed to have sold more than four million Long Term Evolution (LTE)-capable smartphones; it has launched LTE technology in 58 cities and expects that total to be increased by around 170 new locations ‘in the coming months’.