Sprint, the United States' fourth largest wireless carrier, has long fought to shake off its unreliable and poor coverage staple, and it might have just succeeded.
The network managed to fix some of its longstanding issues and is now pleading customers to give it a chance, once more.
The company hired Paul Marcarelli, more known to the public as Verizon's "Can you hear me now?" pitchman, to brush up its image. Marcarelli was designated with the tough task to showcase how much Sprint has improved, so that clients are persuaded to take Sprint for another spin.
In a gesture of openness toward subscribers, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure has visited local stores and listening to customers' feedback to improve the company's services.
However, the best part of Sprint's strategy is that it wants to offer clients consistent savings, should they trade their subscription for one of Sprint's. And it looks like the company's move paid off, at least when it comes to the growth tendency.
The carrier recently announced that no less than 173,000 new postpaid customers joined its ranks. That number is a first in nine years for the company, should we put aside the number of customers who joined Sprint after its purchase of Nextel. In total, Sprint banked a total of 377,000 new customers in the last quarter, but also lost 331,000 clients in its prepaid business that has seen better days.
The hefty number underlines how tough competition is in the wireless sector, where even bruised names such as Sprint can make a comeback after axing prices.
While Sprint relied on the traditional price cuts to win back customers, rivals such as T-Mobile offered free pizza for the same result. Verizon, for example, attempted to lure new subscribers by promising new rate plans with benefits.
However, despite its growth in numbers, Sprint also saw a hefty loss in quarterly profits.
The company shows a loss of $302 million during the fiscal first-quarter. If you are into the trading stock, that means 8 cents per share. A year-over-year comparison shows that the company lost only $20 million in 2015, the equivalent of 1 cent a share. Total revenue for the carrier sank from $8.03 billion a year ago to $8.01 billion this year.
Sprint also made efforts to attract clients by jumping on the Pokémon GO bandwagon. The company placed lures in its stores for incentivizing people to cross its threshold.
The carrier is not the only provider of data that wants to tap into the game's huge popularity. T-Mobile made attempts to appease customers by promising that all mobile data spent in the game will be exempted from taxation for the next year.
