Sprint May Cut 2,000 Jobs Despite Increasing Customer Base

Sprint May Cut 2,000 Jobs Despite Increasing Customer Base

While the loss of customer to rivals has slowed down due to numerous promotions offered by Sprint, the company still registered a loss in the fiscal second-quarter.

The mobile service provider saw added 590,000 customers into its subscriber base, which highlights the significance of reputation in network quality. AT&T and Verizon have maintained their customer base due to the speed and size of their network. On the other hand, T-Mobile made a turnaround due to its enhanced network.

On the other hand, the Softbank unit looked into attracting customer through deals offering more data and lower prices. The deals were the idea of CEO Marcelo Claure.

Claure revealed that the company began a transformational journey that will see the cutting of 2,000 jobs, which may result to annual savings of $400 million. The bigger plan of the company is to reduce annual expenses by $1.5 billion. Shares of the company closed higher on Monday by around five percent at $6.20.

Sprint was able to increase the number of its tablet customers by 261,000, which compensated for a reduction of its phone customers by 500,000. An increase of 827,000 was noted among the wholesale customers of the company while prepaid customers increased by 35,000. The higher loses were attributed to higher credit standards that affected customers with low credit scores.

A number of offers were initiated by the mobile service provider to increase the competitiveness of the company. These offers saw numerous new customers interested in signing up for the post-paid service of the company. However, Claure is thinking of removing phone subsidies in the coming year. CFO Joe Euteneuer revealed the company is planning on returning to post-paid additions during the current quarter.

He indicated that the fourth quarter is expected to see a heated competition, and if the company fares well, it will be more comfortable. Although Sprint saw a successful launch for the iPhone, the smartphone from Apple was historically a bad quarter for the mobile service provider.

Posted by James Fried on Saturday November 08 2014, 4:41 AM EDT. Ref: CNET. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Finance. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0