Sprint expects lower churn in the final quarter of the year and aims to continue that trend in coming years.
Tarek Robbiati, the company’s CFO, told the annual UBS Global Media and Communications Brokers Conference that churn for the quarter is expected to rise 15 basis points compared to the prior three-month period — down from the 20 basis-point increase in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Robbiati attributed the quarterly improvement to promotions during the holiday shopping season, Reuters noted, but the company plans to limit churn over time by improving its network. Sprint’s analytics suggest that customer satisfaction in networks translates to churn rates below 1.3 percent.
“We intend to go below that mark over time,” Robbiati said, according to a transcript of his remarks.
Robbiati also said although Sprint’s merger talks with T-Mobile were “exciting,” “I think it’s important that we all move on” after negotiations broke down last month.
Neither carrier closed the door on future merger discussions, but Robbiati said the deal on the table earlier in the year would have raised antitrust issues and created “a lot of disruption on Sprint.”
“We have got a lot to do at Sprint in fiscal year 2018 and beyond,” he said. “There are exciting times ahead of us and it’s better that we focus on this and see how we are going to be growing our business moving forward.”