Sprint Nextel 1Q07 results

Sprint Nextel reported a 1Q07 loss of $211m, vs a profit of $417m lasy year, on revenues of $10bn, almost flat. It seems that merger between Sprint and Nextel is not as easy as expected. The long distance division reported a 2.1% decline in revenues in spite of a 28% surge in VOIP subscribers to 1.7m. Sprint also underperformed in mobile. With only 600k new mobile subscribers in the quarter, it reported a subscriber base of 53.6m, behind AT&T and Verizon and loosing ground when competitors added 1.2m and 1.7m respectively in the period. Churn is also high with 2.3%. ARPU also fell 5% to $59 in the quarter, driven by the loss of 220,000 high-spending contract customers.