Dan Hesse basically confirms prepaid carriers will get old HTC EVOs; Network Vision still on schedule
In Sprint's Q1 earnings call earlier today, CEO Dan Hesse confirmed that Sprint's prepaid division, which consists of Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile, will indeed be getting Sprint's old WiMAX devices as the network transitions to LTE. This all but confirms previous rumors that the HTC EVO 3D will be rebranded and appear on Virgin Mobile, while the EVO Design 4G will head to Boost.
Additionally, Network Vision is still on track, with six major cities expected to launch LTE within the next few months, and 12,000 sites on air by the end of 2012. Furthermore, as of today, work has already begun on 25% of the planned sites for 2012, and 5% are on the air. Finally, almost 1300 iDEN sites have already been taken off the air, and Sprint expects to decommission a total of 9600 by the end of September; this will free up more spectrum for increased voice services, and eventually LTE.
Even though Sprint is still posting a net loss, almost half of that is due to Network Vision expenses. In other words, once that is done, it will be much easier for Sprint to return a nice profit. In summary, things are looking pretty good!
[Android Central | Sprint]
