Sprint's 1.8 million iPhone sales help boost revenue and new subscribers, but costs as well

Sprint just announced its Q4 results, and it ended up losing $1.3 billion on revenue of $8.7 billion, due partly to one-time charges like the investment in Clearwire, and severance expenditures. The other part of the loss is thanks to the large iPhone subsidies it has to give Apple in comparison with other manufacturers, as most carriers which start selling the iPhone are learning the hard way at first.




Still, again partly thanks to the 1.8 million iPhones sold, it boosted overall revenue, and added more than half a million post-paid subscribers in the three month period ending in December. CEO Dan Hesse had the following to say about it:

Our strong fourth quarter performance illustrates the power of matching iconic devices like the iPhone with our simple, unlimited plans and industry-leading customer experience. During the past year, Sprint added more than 5 million net new customers and grew wireless service revenue by more than 5 percent, including 17 percent for the Sprint platform. This momentum gives us confidence as we execute our Network Vision upgrade and 4G LTE roll-out.

Baltimore and the HQ town of Kansas City were added to Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Atlanta as the first cities where Sprint's 4G LTE network will start operation in mid-2012.