Latest Headlines on OCRegister.com
[x] Close
The Gadgetress ~ TV, mobile and Internet: Covering technology's monthly bill

Archive for the 'Boost earnings' Tag

Boost Mobile boosts Sprint’s quarter with new subscribers

October 29th, 2009, 11:03 am by

Boost MobileWhoa! Irvine’s little ol’ prepaid wireless carrier isn’t so little anymore. So far this year, Boost Mobile has added 2.1 million net new customers. That helped limit parent company Sprint Nextel to just a 135,000 net loss of retail subscribers during the July to September quarter (ouch).

Another ouch – Sprint’s CEO Dan Hesse considered the quarter the company’s “best net retail subscriber results in more than two years,” according to the press release. Sprint now has 48.3 million customers, down from 48.8 million in the second quarter and down from 49.1 million in the first quarter.

Boost is obviously a bright spot. Boost Mobile said it grew 14.4 percent this year over last year. It credits the $50 monthly unlimited plan, which Boost introduced in January. It also got another boost from adding new retailers like Sam’s Club and Car Toys.

Also from today’s earnings release, which categorizes all of Sprint’s prepaid services under one line item:

  • Sprint now has 5.7 million prepaid subscribers (5.2 million on iDEN and 500,000 on CDMA)
  • Churn rate, or the percent of customers coming and going, was down to 6.65 percent during the quarter for prepaid customers, compared to 8.16 percent a year ago and 6.38 percent in the second quarter of 2009. The improvement was attributed to the new unlimited plan.
  • Sprint is making more money off each prepaid customer than before. Prepaid average customer revenues during the quarter was $35 compared to $31 in the year-ago period and $34 in the second quarter of 2009.

Rival MetroPCS plans to release its results next Thursday.

More on cell, mobile services:


Check out the Gadgetress Guide to local cell phone services

Posted in: Cell phones • • • • • • | Comments Off

Unlimited plans, good service ups Boost Mobile’s subscribers

August 3rd, 2009, 11:22 am by

Boost MobileWhoa! Consumers are really beginning to pay attention to prepaid phones.

Irvine’s Boost Mobile signed up 1.65 million new customers during the three months ending June 30. After counting up subscribers it lost, Boost added  777,000 net customers during its second quarter 2009. Win some, lose some.

“That’s the highest number of net adds in three years,” Matt Carter, Boost’s president, told me as he offered an update on the health of Orange County’s prepaid mobile company.

Matt Carter, president of Boost Mobile in Irvine. Image courtesy of Boost Mobile.

Matt Carter, Boost Mobile president

Boost has had some serious competition in the prepaid mobile market, a business it entered in 2002.  Today, not only are there prepaid offerings from the traditional post-paid wireless companies, but newbies like MetroPCS and Cricket Wireless have wowed customers with their unlimited plans. Boost ended up changing its whole target customer last fall — from appealing to the young and hip to the budget conscious.

It launched one of the industry’s first $50 unlimited text and talk plans, introduced its first Boost-branded stores, and hired sexy Indy car racer Danica Patrick, who helped Boost target a new audience.  All of those efforts apparently helped. Boost’s subscribers grew 18 percent to 5 million in three months. Average monthly bill per customer? Up $3 to $34 within three months.

“We shifted from a lifestyle youth-oriented brand to value-conscious consumers. The way we look at Danica … she’s an iconic figure. You go out to the race car events and a lot of those folks who we’re trying to get are there, they shop at Wal-Mart, they shop at Best Buy. They may work for General Motors,” Carter said.

But don’t expect Boost to drop the price on its unlimited monthly plan anytime soon. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Cell phones • • • • • • • • • | 2 Comments »

SEO Powered by Platinum SEO from Techblissonline