Sprint Corp. on Thursday said a decision to quit a strategy to provide broadband service to homes over a fixed wireless network was partly responsible for a loss in the third quarter.
Sprint reported a net loss of $498 million on $6.7 in revenue, compared to a profit of $519 million on $6.8 billion in sales in the quarter a year ago. The Overland Park, Kan., phone company said it decided to “end pursuit of a residential fixed wireless strategy.”
In October 2001, Sprint announced plans to stop acquiring customers on its fixed wireless (MMDS) network and freeze the number of markets served until it made progress on the technology. Fixed wireless service uses a small stationary digital transceiver at the home or business to receive wireless high-speed Internet service from a fixed tower location that serves a wide area.
Sprint said it recorded a third-quarter charge of $1.2 billion in its FON Group, diminishing the value of its spectrum to $300 million. The FON Group consists of Sprint’s global markets division, local incumbent division and other businesses of wholesale distribution.
The FON Group reported a net loss of $433 million, compared to net income of $526 million in the period a year ago. Revenue was $3.5 billion, down 7 percent from a year ago.
The PCS Group, the wireless division, reported a third-quarter loss of 7 cents per share on revenue of $3.3 billion. That compared to a loss of 1 cent per share in the quarter a year ago on sales of $3.2 billion.
Sprint said churn – the percent of PCS customers leaving - was 2.7 percent. That is an improvement compared to 3.8 percent churn in the quarter a year ago. Sprint PCS added 496,000 customers in the quarter, ending the period with 19.3 million subscribers.
