US operator Sprint and European retailer Dixons Carphone ended an agreement to jointly manage retail stores in the US, “in light of the changing US mobile market landscape”.

The decision marks the end of a 50:50 joint venture established in March 2016 covering the opening of 500 Sprint-branded stores in the US using Dixons Carphone retail expertise. The agreement followed a pilot project in 20 stores conducted during 2015.

Sprint said in a statement it will now assume full ownership of more than 100 stores currently operated under the joint venture.

“This partnership achieved its objective of accelerating Sprint’s retail transformation,” said Kevin Crull, Sprint’s president of Omnichannel sales.

UK-headquartered retailer Dixons Carphone explained in its own statement the companies had reached an agreement for Sprint to acquire its 50 per cent share of the distribution joint venture.

It said the decision came in “light of the changing US mobile market landscape and Sprint’s review of its own distribution strategy”.

In the past year, the US mobile market became increasingly competitive, with the country’s major players launching unlimited tariff plans. Sprint and T-Mobile US have made efforts to steal market share from the country’s two market leaders, Verizon and AT&T.

While T-Mobile US thrived with its strategy, Sprint, owned by Japan-based SoftBank, struggled to turn around its financial performance.

Dixons Carphone added it would now focus on developing its Honeybee tablet software platform, and will roll it out across Sprint’s retail store network.