Earnings: Cable Both Blessing, Curse For Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel’s relationship with the cable industry as vendor, partner and competitor is a contant theme throughout the 1Q06 earnings. On every level, the telecom’s present and future are entertwined with cable. Consider:
— During the quarter, cable replaced wireless as the number one reason subscribers defected from Sprint wirelines.
— By the end of the quarter, Sprint Nextel was providing cable telephony wireline services to seven cable
companies totalling more than 1 million cable telephony subs, up 24 percent from year’s end. Cable-related revenues at a $200 million annual run rate were three times that of the previous year.
— Sprint’s JV with four cable operators is well underway with second-half plans to launch with bundled services in seven markets. COO Len Lauer: “Our consumer voice revenues are declining rapidly as consumers migrate toward bundles, many of which are offered by cable companies. By being in line with the leading cable companies, we’re well positioned strategically regarding these macro trends.” Earnings release | Transcript | Webcast (replay)
The NAB coverage is sponsored by Javien.

Comments have been disabled for this post