Sprint Plans Mobile 5G Launch Next Year

Sprint is moving toward mobile 5G early next year and will soon be able to put less emphasis on discounting the cost of its service, CEO Marcelo Claure said on a financial call Friday as the carrier reported quarterly results. “I am very confident in Sprint's future, based on the competitive advantage that we will have with the deployment of 5G on our 2.5 GHz spectrum,” Claure said. “We're working with Qualcomm and network and device manufacturers in order to launch the first truly mobile network in the United States by the first half of 2019.” Sprint will offer applications “no one else can offer and there will be no reason to continue discounting,” Claure said. New Chief Financial Officer Michel Combes said Sprint has cut $6 billion in costs out of the business, but isn’t done cutting. “I still see more room to improve operational efficiency,” he said. The company reported slowing growth. Postpaid phone net adds were 184,000 for the quarter, with churn of 1.71 percent. But Sprint noted this is its 10th consecutive quarter of postpaid net adds.