Latest Articles
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Were The U.S. Wireless Price Wars Just A Mirage?
The U.S. wireless industry has seen an upheaval of sorts over the last three and a half years, after T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS) launched its “Uncarrier” initiative in March 2013, setting the stage for the end of the two year contract m...
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Can Sprint’s Recent Margin Expansion Continue?
Sprint (NYSE:S), the fourth largest U.S. wireless carrier, saw its fiscal Q1 EBITDA margins rise by about 470 bps year-over-year to about 30.7% recently, despite posting a slight decline in operating revenues. While some of the growth comes from...
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How Did The Prepaid And Wholesale Businesses Of U.S. Carriers Fare During Q2?
The prepaid wireless market looks increasingly attractive to U.S. wireless carriers, as prepaid plans shift to monthly billing cycles, while the gap between prepaid and postpaid ARPUs also narrows. However, the performance of the prepaid segments...
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Sprint Rallies 27% On Q1 Subscriber Gains, Did The Markets Overreact?
Sprint (NYSE:S), the fourth largest U.S. wireless carrier, saw its stock price soar by 27% in Monday’s trading, after posting a stronger than expected set of fiscal Q1 numbers. While the carrier’s net loss met expectations, it beat estimat...
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Sprint Earnings Preview: Cost Management, Prepaid Business In Focus
Sprint (NYSE:S) is slated to publish its fiscal Q1 results on July 25. We expect the company’s results to be driven by operating cost reductions and its recent postpaid phone subscriber gains, although this could be partially offset by its...
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How Did U.S. Wireless Stocks React To Brexit?
With the United Kingdom voting to end its membership in the European Union last week, the U.K and potentially the entire E.U. are facing significant economic uncertainty. This had broad repercussions in the U.S. stock markets as well, with the S&...
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Explaining The Recent Sprint Rally
Sprint (NYSE:S), the fourth largest U.S. wireless carrier, has seen its stock price rise by close to 15% over the last week and by approximately 30% in the last three months, outperforming other large cap wireless names. Below we outline some of...
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How Leveraged Are U.S. Wireless Carriers?
Wireless carriers typically carry a significant amount of debt, on account of their capital intensive businesses and stable revenue streams, which allows them to borrow at relatively low rates. Below we compare the key leverage metrics for the bi...
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Why Do U.S. Consumers Pay Significantly More For Wireless Services?
Subscribers in the United States pay roughly twice as much for wireless services compared to the United Kingdom and roughly five times as much as consumers in China. Below we take a look at some of the possible reasons for this disparity. Th...
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Why Is T-Mobile’s Valuation Per Subscriber Ahead Of Sprint’s?
T-Mobile’s per subscriber valuation is about 10% ahead of Sprint’s, likely due to its larger mix of postpaid phones, stronger recent subscriber adds and growth prospects as well as its lower financial leverage. Notes:
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What Has Driven Sprint’s Recent Margin Expansion?
Sprint (NYSE:S) has seen its adjusted EBITDA margins expand from about 24% in Q4 FY’14 to roughly 33% in Q4 FY’15. While much of the growth comes from increasing uptake of the company’s handset leasing program, which sees costs recog...
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How Did The Prepaid And Wholesale Businesses Of U.S. Carriers Trend During Q1?
The performance of the prepaid businesses of the four major U.S. wireless carriers remained a mixed bag during the first quarter, as Verizon and Sprint continued to shed prepaid customers amid a focus on higher-value postpaid users, while both AT...
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Key Takeaways From Sprint’s Q4 Results
Sprint (NYSE:S), the fourth largest U.S. wireless carrier, posted a better-than-expected set of adjusted Q4 FY 2015 earnings, driven by its recent phone subscriber gains and operating cost reductions. Below, we take a look at some of the key ta...
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Sprint Q4 Preview: Recent Customer Gains, Cost Cuts Could Drive Results
Sprint (NYSE:S), the smallest of the four U.S. national wireless carriers, is expected to publish its fiscal Q4 earnings on May 3. We expect the carrier’s results to be driven by its recent postpaid phone subscriber adds, improving churn levels ...
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How Has Postpaid Churn Of The Major U.S. Wireless Carriers Trended In Recent Years?
Subscriber churn is one of the most closely watched metrics in the wireless industry, as it is a measure of a carrier’s customer retention and loyalty. It has become even more important in recent years, given that the scope for new customer...
