It is ‘Immaterial’ if T-Mobile Passes Sprint’s Subscribers, Says Sprint

Sprint as announced openly that even if T-Mobile officially passes outdo them with their total subscribers to reach the No. 3 position as the U.S. carrier, it would not impact Sprint’s business in material terms.

Sprint’s president of postpaid and general business organization, Jaime Jones, shared with the Kansas City Star that the ranking for them is “immaterial” if seen in light of the plans devised by Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure. Neither the customers not the employees are any bothered or even inquisitive about it.

Sprint is more glued to their upcoming plans on “winning in the long-term and not really worrying or being concerned about whether we’re No. 3 or 4 in the short term,” Jones clarified. That also reverberates statements made by Claure and CFO Joe Euteneuer during the last few months.

Just in about a few weeks from now, the wireless industry will report first-quarter earnings and T-Mobile is likely to surpass Sprint then. The CEO at T-Mobile, John Legere, has pledged to pass Sprint any time this year.

Around the end of the fourth quarter of 2014, Sprint had shared that it counted 55.929 million total customers, including the MVNO customers, and T-Mobile said it counted 55.018 million customers--officially 911,000 behind Sprint. 

Sprint has been clambering to retain its postpaid customers as it has worked to expand its LTE network, and more specifically, its faster 2.5 GHz TD-LTE service. The carrier has primarily just been wading waters during the last two years in terms of subscribers, counting around 55 million customers around that time. In contrast, T-Mobile added 8.3 million total customers in 2014 alone.

It is expected that Sprint will share more information on their plans to expand and enhance its network when it reports first-quarter earnings. The company is also anticipating that an improved network will enable it to draw more customers, along with promotions to reimburse all of the costs for a customer to switch over, such as their Early Termination Fees and other payments on equipment installment plans that will be due. Sprint also hopes for its plans to expand into 1,400 RadioShack stores to help its distribution as well as sales.