Carrier Sprint, the nation’s third-largest, today posted results for the fiscal 2012 third quarter ended September 30. The company reported activating 1.5 million iPhones throughout the quarter, mirroring the iPhone activation numbers from the June quarter.
Sprint continues to be under pressure, reporting a net loss of $767 million, nearly half of the $1.38 billion net loss from the June quarter. Some 40 percent of iPhone activations were new customers, or 900,000 people. Sprint also surpassed one million LTE smartphones sold prior to the launch of iPhone 5…
Sprint wrote in a media release that it added 410,000 postpaid subscribers versus 442,000 postpaid subscribers reported for the June quarter. Net subsidy continues to rise, mostly due to costs associated with carrying the iPhone, Sprint said:
The quarterly year-over-year increase in net subsidy is primarily due to the launch of iPhone and 4G LTE devices, which on average carry a higher subsidy rate per handset as compared to other handsets.
The sequential increase in net subsidy is primarily due to higher postpaid and prepaid handset sales and the launch of 4G devices on the prepaid Sprint platform, which on average carry a higher subsidy rate per handset as compared to other handsets.
Sales expenses also increased year-over-year, also primarily due to the iPhone subsidy and subsidy for other devices directly sold by the manufacturer to indirect dealers in which Sprint does not take device title.
Sprint’s 4G LTE is now in 32 cities and the carrier expects that it will roll out the technology to more than 115 additional cities “in the coming months”. They have launched or announced a total of thirteen 4G LTE devices to date, including the iPhone 5.
In comparison, AT&T reported 4.7 million iPhone activations and Verizon during the third-quarter activated 3.1 million iPhone devices.
Verizon reported its Q3 earnings and claimed 3.1 million iPhones sold up from 2.7 the quarter before. AT&T also reported an increase with 4.7 million iPhone activations.