Sprint Nextel Reports First Quarter 2011 Results

The company's first quarter 2011 revenues conference call will be held at 8 a.m. EDT today. Participants may dial 800-938-1120 in the U.S. or Canada and provide the following ID: 56729666, or may listen via the Internet at www.sprint.com/investor.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Sprint Nextel Corp. today reported that while the first quarter of 2011, the company achieved its best total company wireless net subscriber additions in five years. The company added more than 1.1 million total wireless net subscribers driven by best ever prepaid net subscriber additions of 846,000 and net postpaid subscriber additions of 310,000 for the Sprint brand. Sprint achieved best ever postpaid churn of 1.81 percent and the lowest prepaid churn of 4.36 percent in over five years.

Sprint reported first quarter consolidated net operating earnings of in broad outline $8.3 billion, which is a 3 percent increase from the same quarter a year ago, and posted operating income of $259 million. The company as well reported Adjusted OIBDA* of $1.5 billion, a net loss of $439 million and a diluted loss per share of 15 cents for the quarter. Sprint generated $178 million of Free Cash Flow* in the quarter. As of March 31, 2011, the company had roughly $4.0 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments afterwards repayment of $1.65 billion of debt in the quarter. The company does not have any other debt maturities until March 2012.

"With net subscriber additions of 1.1 million, best ever postpaid churn and growing net operating earnings, Sprint maintained the momentum we had exiting 2010," said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO. "We've added two million wireless subscribers over the past two quarters. Despite Verizon's iPhone launch and aggressive competitive responses to it, our simple and unlimited plans, 4G leadership, strong customer service, and successful multi-brand strategy drove solid Sprint performance for the quarter."

Third parties continue to praise Sprint's achievements in customer service, wholesale and environmental sustainability. Sprint was named as a J.D. Power 2011 Customer Service Champion. Sprint was one of only 40 companies to earn this distinction as a company that delivers service excellence to U.S. clients - both within their respective industries and across all industries measured. Additionally, in April, Boost Mobile, one of Sprint's prepaid brands, received the highest rating in the J.D. Power and Associates 2011 Wireless Non-Contract Customer Satisfaction Index StudySM. As well this month, industry-leading technology firm ATLANTIC-ACM awarded Sprint Global Wholesale Excellence awards for No. 1 in Brand and Voice Value, and U.S. Wholesale Excellence Awards for No. 1 in Brand, Provisioning, Network and Customer Service. Taking everything into account, Sprint was again the only U.S. wireless carrier to be named among the Environmental Protection Agency's national top 50 Green Power Partners list. Sprint's wind-power purchase helped the company secure its No. 19 ranking on the EPA's Fortune 500® green power partner list.

Sprint has launched or announced 22 4G devices - the largest 4G portfolio of any wireless carrier in the United States. While the first quarter of 2011, Sprint launched its third 4G phone, the HTC EVO™ Shift 4G, and the Overdrive™ Pro 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot by Sierra Wireless. Just in case, Sprint announced the upcoming availability of two 4G tablets, the BlackBerry 4G PlayBook™ and HTC EVO View 4G™, as then as two more handsets - the HTC EVO™ 3D and the Nexus S™ 4G from Google™. Sprint currently offers 4G service in 71 markets in 28 states and clients have benefited from expansion of the 4G network footprint and capacity upgrades in many markets.

Sprint has as well announced or launched several other additions to its innovative device line up. The award-winning Kyocera Echo™, the nation's first dual-touchscreen Android™ smartphone was announced in February and launched before this month. The first Sprint device with Windows Phone 7, the HTC Arrive™, launched while the first quarter as did the LG Optimus V™, the latest Android phone carried by Virgin Mobile.

OIBDA is operating income/(loss) previously depreciation and amortization. Adjusted OIBDA is OIBDA excluding severance, exit costs, and other special items. Adjusted OIBDA Margin represents Adjusted OIBDA divided by non-equipment net operating earnings for Wireless and Adjusted OIBDA divided by net operating earnings for Wireline. We believe that Adjusted OIBDA and Adjusted OIBDA Margin provide useful information to investors because they are an indicator of the strength and performance of our ongoing business operations, including our ability to fund discretionary spending just as capital expenditures, spectrum acquisitions and other investments and our ability to incur and service debt. During depreciation and amortization are considered operating costs pursuant to this agreement GAAP, these expenses primarily represent non-cash current period costs associated with the use of long-lived tangible and definite-lived intangible assets. Adjusted OIBDA and Adjusted OIBDA Margin are calculations commonly used as a basis for investors, analysts and credit rating agencies to evaluate and compare the periodic and future operating performance and value of companies within the telecommunications industry.

The meaning of the securities laws

This news release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the securities laws. The statements in this news release regarding the business outlook, expected performance and forward-looking guidance, as so then as other statements that are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements. The words "estimate," "project," "forecast," "intend," "expect," "believe," "target," "providing guidance" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements are estimates and projections reflecting management's judgment based on currently available information and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those recommended by the forward-looking statements. With respect to these forward-looking statements, management has made assumptions regarding, among other things, customer and network usage, customer growth and retention, pricing, operating costs, the timing of various events and the economic and regulatory environment.

Comprehensive range of wireless

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel served more than 51 million clients at the end of first quarter 2011 and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; offering industry-leading mobile data services, leading prepaid brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance WirelessSM; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Newsweek ranked Sprint No. 6 in its 2010 Green Rankings, listing it as one of the nation's greenest companies, the highest of any telecommunications company. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint.