Sprint has decided to get deeper into the social and mobile space, announcing today that it has acquired Handmark and its subsidiary OneLouder. The acquisition is meant to beef up its Pinsight Media+ advertising group, specifically. Through Handmark, OneLouder has built social apps like Twitter clients Tweetcaster and Slices, and Friendcaster, a Facebook client. The acquisition price hasn’t… → Read More
Sprint’s Q1 2013 financial results came out this morning, and the news wasn’t great overall. Losses continue to accumulate, and total smartphone sales aren’t faring very well, either, with just 5 million units sold in total. The iPhone, after achieving a record high of 2.2 million handsets sold on Sprint’s network last quarter, dropped back down to 1.5 million, the same number Sprint saw in the… → Read More
Sprint’s Q1 2013 earnings today revealed that although Sprint may have slowed its decline, it’s far from out of the woods.
Sprint’s reported earnings reveal a slight slowdown with losses narrowing from $1.3 billion last quarter to $643 million this quarter. The company reported losses of $0.21 per share, as opposed to a negative EPS of $.44 last quarter. → Read More
A dramatic turn of events in the ongoing story of U.S. carrier consolidation: Dish Network is launching a $25.5 billion bid for number-three carrier Sprint, amounting to $17.3 billion in cash and $8.2 billion in stock. If successful, the deal would effectively snatch Sprint out of the hands of Japanese carrier Softbank, which in October announced that it would pay $20.5 billion for a 70% stake in… → Read More
Say what you will about Dish Networks, but the Colorado company’s brass has some moxie. The satellite media service provider has been trying for years now to link up with notable national wireless carrier to help operate a mobile service to sell alongside its current offerings, and according to a recent report from Bloomberg, Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen has approached T-Mobile parent… → Read More
Quixey, the app search startup that signed a deal to power app search results on Ask.com this December, is today announcing another high-profile partnership, this time with U.S. mobile carrier Sprint. The operator will use Quixey’s technology in its Sprint Zone and Sprint Digital Lounge, the former its branded app and media store, and the latter a portal for finding similar content via the web… → Read More
Sprint today announced that it has arranged an agreement with Clearwire to buy out the remainder of the smaller company for $2.2 billion, or $2.97 per share. The final price is at the top of the reported ceiling put on the total cost of the acquisition reportedly placed on the deal by SoftBank’s chairman. SoftBank’s 70 percent investment in Sprint made the deal possible, and this arrangement will… → Read More
Sprint’s attempted purchase of Clearwire may have hit a snag, according to a new report from Reuters. Sprint reportedly has a hard cap on how much it can offer to buy out the beleaguered Clearwire, set by Softbank, which is purchasing a majority stake in Sprint for around $20 billion. Clearwire shareholders, however, reportedly think the offer price on the table isn’t high enough, and the rising… → Read More
Earlier, it was rumored that Sprint was considering a buy-out of the remaining 48 percent of Clearwire shares it didn’t own, after the pending Softbank investment in its company promised to deliver it enough cash to negate the adverse effect of taking on Clearwire’s money-losing financials. Now, Bloomberg reports that Sprint is indeed looking to buy, in a deal worth about $2.1 billion according to… → Read More
You can’t say I didn’t give it an honest try. It was over a year ago now that I tried switching from an Android phone to the iPhone. The main reason I had waited so long was my tether to Google Voice – I’m all in there after porting my phone number to them a few years ago. And Google Voice never worked natively on the iPhone. → Read More
Sprint is said to be in talks to gobble up the remaining 49 percent of Clearwire it doesn’t already own, according to new reports from CNBC and the Wall Street Journal. The deal is meant to sort out issues that Sprint has had in steering the decision-making process of Clearwire’s business, sources told the WSJ, and it would help Sprint acquire the spectrum rights currently owned by Clearwire. → Read More
Sprint announced this morning that it is now offering the iPad mini and fourth generation iPad with LTE connectivity in “select Sprint retail locations.” Sprint is one of three official U.S. data providers for Apple’s tablet, offering LTE data plans for the iPads that don’t carry a contract and only require 30 day commitments at a time. AT&T is also said to be starting iPad mini sales today. → Read More
Windows Phone 8 is hitting Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile this year. But Sprint customers will have to wait until 2013. For unknown reasons, the carrier is not getting any versions of the Nokia or HTC WinPhone 8 handsets at launch.
Perhaps Sprint’s hesitance has something to do with the lackluster performance of Windows Phone 7. This is a wise move. → Read More
Sprint today announced that it has made an arrangement with U.S. Cellular to acquire PCS spectrum and also wireless network customers for $480 million in cash, and Sprint’s taking over of “certain liabilities” on behalf of U.S. Cellular. The arrangement will help Sprint bolster its own network as it rolls out LTE nationally, the company said in a press release, helping to beef up network capacity. → Read More
Hurricane Sandy, what may essentially be the biggest storm to hit the North Eastern seaboard in history, is barreling toward us, through the Atlantic, at this very second. It’s estimated to cause between $2.5 and $3 billion in wind damage alone, and has already claimed dozens of lives on its way to the States.
To that extent, the nation’s major wireless carriers want you to know they’re ready… → Read More
Sprint, newly acquired by Japanese SoftBank for $20.1 billion earlier this month, has just announced earnings results for the third quarter, perhaps showing just how fortunate this acquisition will be for the company. For the period ending September 30, the company reported negative EPS of $.26 on revenues of $7.3 billion, an increase of nearly 6 percent year-over-year. That’s down from… → Read More
Softbank has confirmed the news that it is buying Sprint, the third-largest wireless carrier in the U.S., for $20.1 billion (¥1.571 trillion). In fact, this is turning out to be full acquisition of what Softbank is calling “New Sprint.”: “As a result of the transaction SOFTBANK will own approximately 70% of the fully-diluted (as used herein, not giving effect to out-of-the-money options) shares… → Read More
Capitalizing on our increasing loss of memorization skills, Sprint is today launching a new product that will let users replace their usual phone number with their name. And the product has perhaps the best brand name ever: StarStar Me.
StarStar Me essentially lets you give out your name, nickname, or any word you’d like, instead of giving our your phone number. So, instead of giving you my… → Read More
LG’s last big (and I mean big) smartphone release around these parts was the Intuition, a funky phablet that many a critic panned. Thankfully, the company’s straight-laced follow-up — the nicely spec’d Optimus G — was revealed earlier this month, and now both AT&T and Sprint have signed on to sell the thing when it launches later this year. → Read More
Now that Motorola is owned by Google, you may think that past and present Motorola devices should get the latest and best version of Android. With Sprint announcing quietly on its forum that the Motorola XPRT will be updated to Android Gingerbread (2.3), it shows once again that the update rollout process for Android is broken — Android 2.3 was released two years ago. → Read More
So here’s an interesting predicament that I’ve found myself in today. As you know, the iPhone 5 pre-sale begins at 12:01 Friday morning. I’m ready to pre-order like every other geek, but I can’t. Here’s the gist of it.
I was in Mexico last month, and before I left I added international data roaming services for two of my lines. Pretty standard for me, since I travel a lot. Those additions… → Read More
You know what Sprint’s LTE handset line-up has been missing (aside from more network coverage outside of Texas)? Some variety! Nearly all of Sprint’s LTE devices are monolithic, all-touch slabs of plastic and glass — it wouldn’t hurt to mix things up a bit, and that’s exactly what the carrier did.
On the off chance that your thumbs still yearn to pound out text messages on a physical QWERTY… → Read More
Sprint is making solid headway with its new LTE network — it’s already live in 15 (mostly Texan markets) with another four slated to light up before Labor Day rolls around and the carrier aims to have 12,000 LTE sites online by the end of the year.
Sure, the process has been held up at least partially thanks to some damn birds, but now it seems another region should officially get the LTE nod… → Read More
The folks at Sprint seem to be having a busy day so far — this morning saw (among other things) the release of the carrier’s latest quarterly financials, an announcement about new LTE markets, and the revelation that birds are keeping the company from lighting up “hundreds” of LTE sites.
If that wasn’t enough Sprint for you, now the carrier has announced the Motorola Photon Q, a new… → Read More
Sprint seems to be taking the slow and steady approach to their LTE light-up, but it turns out that’s not entirely by design. When asked about how confident the carrier was about meeting its goal of 12,000 live LTE sites by the end of the year, Sprint Networks Operations President Steve Elfman pointed out a particularly peculiar stumbling block.
“We’ve got several hundred sites that are done… → Read More
U.S. wireless carrier Sprint Nextel has just posted its results for Q2, and while it continues to prepare for a brighter future ahead, it reported a widening net loss of $1.4 billion, with negative EPS of $.46 per share, failing to meet analyst expectations. That’s compared to a net loss of $847 million and a diluted net loss of $.28 per share in the second quarter of 2011. Overall revenues were… → Read More
FreedomPop, the ambitious startup devoted to bringing freemium internet to the masses, has been awfully busy lately. The last time they popped up on our radar the company had just put its WiMAX-capable iPhone sleeves on pre-order, but the team has been up to more than just churning out data-friendly cases.
In addition to working with Clearwire, FreedomPop announced earlier today that it has… → Read More
Sprint’s version of the Galaxy S III has been a bit delayed due to some supply shortages, but the carrier has just confirmed that the Galaxy S III will be available in store on July 1. Pre-orders for the 32GB version started shipping yesterday.
According to Sprint’s official word (below), only the 32GB version will be available on the web, while the 16GB version requires a visit to a good old… → Read More
The Samsung Galaxy S III is the Android phone of the moment and in many ways it lives up to the hype. Plenty of folks are excited to see this thing hit store shelves. Our take? They won’t be disappointed.
Stellar software features paired with a beautiful display and specs that can compete with anything else on the market makes the Galaxy S III nothing short of a total delight. Physically it’s… → Read More
Poor T-Mobile. It was one thing when the iPhone was only available at AT&T, but then Verizon got it, and then Sprint, and then the bar dropped quite a bit as U.S. Cellular got it, and most recently Cricket Wireless joined ranks offering the iPhone as an unlocked prepaid device. But now, Sprint’s Virgin Mobile has taken on the device, according to the WSJ.
Again, poor T-Mobile. But enough… → Read More
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