Sprint Nextel says it is reigning in the growth of Boost Mobile after the company reported dismal results and sounded the alarm to analysts when it revealed that prepaid customers accounted for the bulk of its subscriber adds in the second quarter. The explanation from Sprint is interesting. It is intentionally reducing Boost's rapid growth in part because the prepaid customers were straining part of the iDEN network. Executives would rather provide good service to existing and new subscribers on the postpaid iDEN network--which essentially hasn't seen any growth on the postpaid side where all the high-ARPU subscribers are. Sprint is also blaming the rebanding effort it has embarked on to reduce interference between the iDEN network and first-responder communications. The fixes are reducing the volume of calls the network can handle.
For more about Sprint's pull-back of Boost:
- check out this article from The Kansas City Star