Sprint adds 1.1 million new subscribers, but lost half a billion dollars

Sprint’s Q3 2015 numbers were bad… but good, too. Their goal was to get more customers and, well, they’ve gone and done that to the tune of 1.1 million new folks signed up for service.

That said, the company had losses in one other big category: money. They lost half a billion dollars, which is likely the result of their aggressive promotions which were responsible for drawing all those consumers in the first place.

It’s a vicious cycle, really, but something had to give on either end of this thing. Sprint either had to try and match T-Mobile’s aggressiveness in marketing and perks, or improve their network so much that folks flocked back to the Now Network in droves. Since the latter is hard to do in a short amount of time and requires more money anyway, we don’t fault them for taking the risk on T-Mobile’s strategy.

But the question has to become: how long will it last? How much money can Sprint stand to lose before they spend themselves right out of the race? And will they ever be able to catch back up to T-Mobile, who doesn’t seem to be slowing down on any fronts?

That’s what still-fresh CEO Marcelo Claure gets paid the big bucks to figure out, so we’ll have to see if 2016 brings any better fortune for him and his troubled company.