Sprint seeking $7 billion in financing, may have bet it all on iPhone and network upgrades

Just yesterday we reported on Sprint’s Q3 results, which by all accounts seemed to be rather optimistic in nature despite a loss of $301 million. This was made up by an increase of 2% in revenue, bringing Sprint’s Q3 revenue to $8.33 billion, and seeing an addition of 1.3 million new customers, all of which was apparently accomplished without help from the iPhone, and if you’re thinking that the iPhone will be giving Sprint that extra push, you could be wrong.

It seems that Sprint has placed one heck of a bet on Apple’s iPhone, hoping that it would attract customers in droves. This bet (or investment if you would rather) has cost Sprint quite a lot of money, coupled with their network upgrade which will see Sprint launch their LTE network next year, and LTE-Advance in 2013. It looks like perhaps Sprint might have been a little too ambitious and is now seeking an additional $7 billion in funding.

According to reports, Sprint is paying Apple $200 more for the iPhone than it does for any other device in their portfolio. Their belief was that the iPhone was the number one reason that customers have switched from Sprint to other carriers (AT&T and Verizon) in the past simply because the carrier lacked the iPhone, which whether you like it or not, is a pretty hot device.

No doubt the iPhone will be attracting customers over onto Sprint’s network, but it seems that some analysts do not share Sprint’s confidence in the iPhone, saying that in order to make their plan work, they would have to “turn their entire company into an Apple shop.” The analysts however are saying that it will probably take about year before they an assessment of Sprint’s plan can be made and to see if it is successful, until then, here’s hoping for the best!

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: 4g lte, iPhone 4S, LTE, Sprint