Sprint gained product buying leverage from its $22...
Sprint gained product buying leverage from its $22 billion sale to SoftBank, but won’t likely see the full impact until next year, said Sprint Chief Financial Officer Joe Euteneuer at a Goldman Sachs conference Thursday. While Sprint suffered shortages of…
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iPhones in the past, getting enough inventory may no longer be an issue, Euteneuer said. “All the vendors are looking at us now and realize we are one company,” he told us. “As much as we are a standalone independent entity, from a purchasing standpoint they realize we are one buying company and we gained some leverage.” Sprint will start deploying so-called tri-band mobile phones late this year capable of delivering LTE services using the 1.9 MHz, 800 MHz and 2.5 GHz spectrum bands, he said. Sprint acquired the 2.5 GHz capability when it bought Clearwire earlier this year. “We plan on putting it out there and it’s something that we are going to hang our hat on because 2.5 GHz means a lot to us,” Euteneuer said. Sprint, which expects to have 200 million points of presence for its Network Vision LTE by year-end, expects to start deploying LTE across its 800 MHz band in early 2014, while Clearwire’s 2.5 GHz network of 5,000 towers will get it by year-end, Euteneuer said. Sprint will start installing 2.5 GHz on its 38,000 towers in first-half 2014, he said. Sprint expects to have LTE go network-wide by mid-2014, Euteneuer said. Sprint has 40 percent LTE coverage in some markets, including Chicago, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, Euteneuer said. Sprint had LTE in 151 U.S. cities June 30, the company has said. Sprint’s push in 4G comes with the financial backing of SoftBank, which owns 78 percent of the carrier and supplied it with a $1.9 billion capital infusion before the closing in July, Sprint has said. The two companies won’t be fully integrated for about two years, Euteneuer said. Sprint had 56.1 million wireless customers June 30, down from 56.3 million a year earlier. The number of postpaid customers inched up to 32.8 million from 32.5 million a year earlier, while prepaid -- services sold under the Virgin and Boost brands -- slipped slightly to 15.21 million from 15.41 million.