US price war intensifies as DoJ mulls competition probe
Published: 7 July, 2009
READ MORE: US
Continued ...
In a different area of low cost services, Sprint has teamed up with Best Buy to offer a netbook for just 99 cents when users take a two-year contract. Sprint is the first to emulate European carriers, which now routinely offer netbooks for free with sufficiently heavy duty data contracts (which often equate to at least double the cost of the device over the two-year period). Sprint consumers can get a Compaq HP Mini 110c, usually priced at $389 at retail (AT&T and Verizon Wireless charge $199 for similar models with two-year deals, though Verizon offers one for free with its Fios landline deal). The Sprint/HP combination will be available from Best Buy. The Sprint/Best Buy contract is $60 a month, or $1,440 over its life.
Sprint is at least showing a more innovative approach to the market, even while moves like Boost and the netbook seem to do little to address one of its key challenges, swinging the balance of its customer base back towards higher value subscribers. However, the cellco's shares climbed by 2.3% on an upgrade by analyst Auriga, which moved Sprint from 'hold' to 'buy' and boosted target price from $5.50 to $7. The main reason for Auriga's new confidence was Boost - analyst Chandan Sarkar said in a research note that, while the shares remain "wildly volatile", his upgrade is based on strong demand for Boost prepaid services, combined with an expected slowing of contract customer losses in the second half of this year.
Sarkar said he thinks Sprint has already added 350,000 Palm Pre subscribers, up from his earlier estimate of 250,000, which led him to lower his forecast for contract subscriber loss for the second quarter from 1.3m to 1.1m, and in the third quarter, from 1.1m to 800,000.
Pages: 1 | 2
More US News
More HANDSET News
More LTE News
COMMENTS
Carrier Broadband Performance: Africa & Middle East
Carriers are using mobile broadband as their weapon of choice in the fight against the commoditization of voice and falling ARPU. This...
Voice over LTE: Market Analysis and Forecasts
VoLTE offer unique advantages in lowering a carrier's voice infrastructure economics and promises to improve voice quality, device...
Satellite Phones: Will Dual Mode Help the Phoenix Rise from the Ashes?
Satellite phones have followed an arduous path since their much-hyped launch more than a decade ago. The hype was followed by an e...
