Sprint became the only US operator to record a decline in wireless service revenue during calendar Q3 (the operator’s fiscal Q2), but slashed its net loss compared to the same period in 2016.

Total revenue dropped $320 million year-over-year to $7.9 billion, as wireless service revenue slid $368 million to $5.6 billion. In terms of sales, the only bright spot for Sprint during the three months to end-September was a $126 million increase in equipment revenue to $1.9 billion.

Net loss for the period fell from $142 million in the 2016 period to $42 million in the recent quarter.

Revenue declined $175 million year-on-year to $16.1 billion, while a net loss of $444 million in 2016 was overturned with a $158 million profit.

Sprint racked up 168,000 post paid net additions during its fiscal Q2, up from a loss of 39,000 in the comparable 2016 period. Prepaid net additions of 95,000 in the recent quarter was a marked improvement on a 449,000 loss in 2016.

Sprint announced its earnings as rumours continue to swirl regarding a merger with T-Mobile US. Like its mooted partner, which announced earnings on 23 October, Sprint shunned the traditional investor call when releasings its figures.

Merger muddle
The operator noted it was ducking the earnings call to avoid “noise in the media and in the market” about the rumoured merger.

But Sprint and T-Mobile’s reluctance to talk M&A didn’t stop others from weighing in.

In a statement released a day before Sprint’s earnings, major labour union Communication Workers of America (CWA) claimed the combination of Sprint and T-Mobile would result in the loss of “at least 20,000 US jobs”. CWA said most of the job losses would come from store closures and the elimination of redundancies at corporate offices.

The union does not currently represent any workers at Sprint or T-Mobile, but holds a strong presence at Verizon and AT&T.

“Allowing Sprint and T-Mobile to merge guarantees the loss of tens of thousands of US jobs that would result from store closures and the consolidation of administrative work,” CWA president Chris Shelton stated: “Corporations and Wall Street applaud this ‘synergy,’ but employees and their families would bear all the costs of this merger.”

Such a reduction would seem to fly in the face of a pledge made by SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son to President Donald Trump late in 2016 to invest $50 billion and create 50,000 US jobs over the course of four years. SoftBank owns a 70 per cent stake in Sprint.