Sprint reports higher post-paid subscriber additions but still hit with net loss

Sprint has reported its latest financial numbers for the first quarter of fiscal year 2016. While the wireless carrier stated it had the highest post-paid subscriber additions for the quarter in nine years, it still had a net loss of $302 million, which was bigger than the $20 million it lost from the same period a year ago. The company recorded operating revenues of $8 billion during the quarter.

Sprint stated that its first quarter post-paid subscriber additions of 173,000 represented the fourth consecutive quarter it had seen positive net additions. It also saw a postpaid phone churn of 1.39%, which it said was the best in the company history. Sprint had a total of 377,000 net additions to its service during the quarter.

Press release

Sprint Reports Highest First Quarter Postpaid Phone Net Additions in Nine Years, Lowest Ever Postpaid Phone Churn, and Postpaid Net Port Positive Against All Three National Carriers with First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2016 Results

Postpaid phone net additions of 173,000 are the fourth consecutive quarter of positive net additions

Postpaid phone churn of 1.39 percent is the best in company history and improved year-over-year for the sixth consecutive quarter

Postpaid net port positive against all three national carriers for the first time in over five years

Net loss of $302 million, Operating income of $361 million and Adjusted EBITDA* of $2.5 billion

Over $550 million of year-over-year reduction in cost of service and selling, general, and administrative expenses

Net cash provided by operating activities of $542 million improved by more than $400 million year-over-year; Adjusted free cash flow* of $466 million grew by $2.7 billion year-over-year

Delivering financial flexibility with nearly $11 billion of liquidity, including $5.1 billion of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments

Successfully raised $5.8 billion of liquidity in the quarter, including $2.2 billion of network-related financing, $1.1 billion from the second transaction with Mobile Leasing Solutions, LLC (MLS), and $2.5 billion under a new unsecured financing facility

LTE Plus Network now available in 237 markets

2.5GHz spectrum now carries more of Sprint’s LTE traffic than any other spectrum band

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), July 25, 2016 – Sprint Corporation (NYSE:S) today reported operating results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2016, including the lowest postpaid phone churn in company history at 1.39 percent and a total liquidity position of nearly $11 billion. The company also reported total net operating revenues of $8 billion, net loss of $302 million, operating income of $361 million, and Adjusted EBITDA* of $2.5 billion.

“We had another quarter of solid progress in our turnaround with the highest first quarter postpaid phone net additions in nine years1, the lowest postpaid phone churn in company history, and finally being postpaid net port positive against all three national carriers after five years” said Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure. “We also grew wireless net operating revenue year-over-year while aggressively reducing the cash operating expenses of the business and our network is performing better than ever.”

Highest Fiscal First Quarter Postpaid Phone Net Additions in Nine Years1

Sprint’s focus on delivering the best value proposition in wireless resulted in the highest fiscal first quarter postpaid phone net additions in nine years and the fourth consecutive quarter of positive net additions with 173,000 in the quarter compared to net losses of 12,000 in the prior year quarter. The 185,000 year-over-year improvement was driven by both better acquisition and retention, as postpaid phone gross additions were up 10 percent year-over-year and postpaid phone churn of 1.39 percent improved 10 basis points to reach the lowest level in company history. Postpaid phone churn has improved year-over-year for six consecutive quarters.

The company recently launched an advertising campaign featuring Paul Marcarelli, the actor who used to ask if you “could hear me now” for Verizon, to highlight the fact that networks today aren’t that different so why should customers pay more. The campaign has been one of the most successful in company history. The ad has been viewed over 8 million times on YouTube and the company became postpaid net port positive against all three national carriers for the first time in over five years. Can you hear that?

The company also reported the following Sprint platform results:

Total net additions were 377,000 in the quarter, including postpaid net additions of 180,000, prepaid net losses of 331,000, and wholesale and affiliate net additions of 528,000.
Total postpaid churn of 1.56 percent in the quarter was flat year-over-year.
Top Line Stabilizes as Cost Reductions Continue

With trends improving in its postpaid phone business, Sprint reported total net operating revenues that were flat to the prior year quarter for the first time in over two years. In addition, wireless net operating revenues grew 1 percent year-over-year and postpaid wireless service revenues have remained at $4.8 billion for the last three quarters.

Sprint also made considerable progress in its ongoing effort to transform the cost structure of the business, as the company realized over $550 million year-over-year reduction in cost of services and selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses. The company remains on track to achieve its goal of a sustainable reduction of $2 billion or more of run rate operating expenses exiting fiscal year 2016.

The company also reported the following financial results:

Net loss of $302 million, or $0.08 per share, in the quarter compared to a net loss of $20 million, or $0.01 per share in the year-ago period. The current quarter included $113 million of non-recurring contract termination charges primarily related to the termination of the pre-existing wholesale arrangement with Ntelos Holding Corp.
Operating income of $361 million in the quarter compared to operating income of $501 million in the year-ago quarter. Adjusting for the aforementioned contract termination charges related to the pre-existing wholesale arrangement with Ntelos Holding Corp. in the current quarter, operating income would have been relatively flat year-over-year.
Adjusted EBITDA* of $2.5 billion in the quarter grew 18 percent from the prior year period, primarily because of expense reductions, including over $550 million in cost of services and SG&A expenses.
Net cash provided by operating activities was $542 million in the quarter compared to $128 million in the prior year. The $414 million year-over-year improvement was driven by expense reductions and favorable changes to working capital.
Adjusted free cash flow* was positive $466 million in the quarter compared to negative $2.2 billion in the prior year. The $2.7 billion year-over-year improvement was due to expense reductions, lower capital spending, and net proceeds from our second transaction with MLS.
Liquidity Position Grows to Nearly $11 Billion

Sprint took several actions during the quarter to improve its financial flexibility, including successfully raising $2.2 billion of network-related financing, $1.1 billion from a second transaction with MLS, and $2.5 billion under a new unsecured financing facility, which was increased from its original $2 billion amount within the quarter. These transactions helped increase the company’s liquidity position to nearly $11 billion at the end of the quarter, including $5.1 billion of cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments. Additionally, the company has $1.1 billion of availability under vendor financing agreements that can be used toward the purchase of 2.5GHz network equipment.

The company continues to pursue additional financing initiatives, including additional handset and receivables financing transactions and a securitization involving a small portion of its spectrum assets.

LTE Plus Network Expansion Contributes to Speed and Reliability Performance

Sprint aims to unlock the value of the U.S.’s largest spectrum holding by densifying and optimizing its network to provide customers the best experience. The Sprint LTE Plus Network, which combines a rich tri-band spectrum portfolio with the LTE Advanced features of carrier aggregation and antenna beamforming, launched in 33 additional markets, increasing the total to 237 markets across the country.

Sprint’s LTE Plus Network expansion and its densification and optimization strategy have driven significant improvements in both data speeds and network reliability as noted by several third party sources.

Sprint’s LTE Plus Network continued to outperform Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile by delivering the fastest LTE download speeds based on recent crowd-sourced data from Nielsen.2 Additionally, Sprint’s reliability beat T-Mobile and performed within 1 percent of AT&T and Verizon.3
Independent mobile analytics firm RootMetrics® awarded Sprint 75 percent more first place Network Reliability RootScore® Awards (from 24 to 42) in the 125 markets measured in the first half of 2016 compared to the prior testing period, including wins in Chicago, Houston, and Atlanta.4
Sprint’s reliability beat Verizon and its average download speeds beat AT&T and T-Mobile, according to PC Magazine’s Fastest Mobile Networks 2016 report.
Sprint’s deployment of 2.5GHz spectrum has become an integral part of how the company meets the growing data usage and speed demands of its customers, as that spectrum band now carries the highest percentage of Sprint’s LTE data traffic.

Fiscal Year 2016 Outlook

The company continues to expect:

Operating income of $1 billion to $1.5 billion
Adjusted EBITDA* of $9.5 billion to $10 billion
Cash capital expenditures, excluding devices leased through indirect channels, of approximately $3 billion
Adjusted free cash flow* around break-even

Scientists map human brain in more detail than ever before

Scientists are still using a 100 year-old map to identify 83 known regions of the brain, but that’s about to change. A team from Washington University in St. Louis, working with the Human Connectome Project, has plotted 97 new areas of our gray matter, bringing the total to 180. The updated map will help researchers better explore the brain and may lead to breakthroughs in autism, schizophrenia and other neurological disorders. “If you want to find out what the brain can do, you have to understand how it is organized and wired,” says study leader Dr. David Van Essen.

Scientists scanned 1,200 test subjects with customized MRI machines packing three teslas of magnetic field strength. The patients were given simple tasks like listening to stories and doing math to see which regions lit up. They found that certain brain areas are clearly involved with, say, listening to a story, while others map a person’s field of view or control movement. The team not only developed a precise, well-defined map, but also released an “alignment algorithm” so that other researchers can repeat the tests.

The researchers defined 180 regions per hemisphere, but each of those can likely be subdivided further by future researchers. And while different regions of the brain perform specific functions, they also provide assistance and pass signals to other parts of the brain. In fact, the Human Connectome Project previously determined that strong connectivity between regions of the brain was a good marker for intelligence.

Using the algorithm, researchers and doctors can map a new subject’s brain in an hour or so with nearly 97 percent accuracy, even if the regions are irregular. The study should help doctors find areas affected by diseases like dementia to better see how treatments are working. Down the road, it will serve as a blueprint for further development and help us discover more about how our brain’s tick, and therefore, what makes us human.

Via: The New York Times

Source: Nature, WUSTL

Super-fast magnetic motor keeps tiny satellites on track

Satellites often rely on reaction wheels, or constantly spinning flywheels, to tweak their attitudes without using precious fuel. However, they tend to be very delicate — since they use ball bearings, they spin relatively slowly (under 6,000RPM), take up a lot of space, need tightly controlled environments and aren’t very precise. Thankfully, researchers at Celeroton have a better way. They’ve created a magnetically levitated motor that achieves the effect of a regular reaction wheel with virtually none of the drawbacks. Since its rotor floats in a magnetic field, it can spin much faster (up to 150,000RPM) without wearing out, creating vibrations or requiring a special, lubricated environment. And given that it produces the same angular momentum as a much larger reaction wheel, it’s perfect for CubeSats and any other tiny satellite where internal space is at a premium.

The motor is only a prototype at the moment, and it’ll take a while before there’s something commercially viable. However, multiple potential partners (including the European Space Agency) are reportedly interested. You may well see production satellites that can always adjust their positions, which might keep them useful well after conventional orbiters break down and become space junk.

Via: TechCrunch

Source: ETH Zurich

Apple Stock Forecasted to Rise as Lifetime iPhone Sales Reach 1 Billion

Apple will report its fiscal third quarter earnings results tomorrow, and both the company and analysts project a year-over-year decline in iPhone sales and overall revenue for a second consecutive quarter.

Apple expects third quarter revenue of between $41 billion and $43 billion, which would be up to 18 percent lower than the $49.6 billion in revenue it posted in the year-ago quarter. The consensus among analysts is around $42.1 billion in revenue, which is essentially the midpoint of Apple’s guidance.

Analysts estimate that Apple sold at least another 40 million iPhones during the June quarter, raising lifetime sales of the smartphone to some 987 million. Applying that sales rate to July — just over 13 million iPhones per month — it is likely that Apple will have sold its billionth iPhone between now and the end of this month.

The milestone comes at a time when iPhone sales are on the decline for the first time since the smartphone launched in 2007, an arguably inevitable lull following the smash-hit success of the larger-screened iPhone 6 series. The decline has affected Apple shares, which are down around 21 percent from a 52-week high of $123.91.

Nevertheless, many Wall Street firms expect iPhone growth to resume in 2017. The good news could extend to Apple’s stock, as The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported that its “shares have been punished more than enough” and are due for a rally. It said the decline in iPhone sales “appears priced in.”

Still, Apple has been punished more than enough. The iPhone slump appears priced in. And while the next iPhone, expected later this year, likely won’t be a significant upgrade, there is optimism that sales growth will soon bounce back. Analysts forecast iPhone unit sales will rise 5% for fiscal 2017, which ends next September.

After briefly touching the $100 mark last week for the first time since early June, Apple shares are currently trading around the $98 mark, a price that some analysts feel undervalues the company.

Apple analyst Brian White of Drexel Hamilton reiterated his “buy” rating for AAPL today, based on a projected price target of $185. UBS analyst Steven Milunovich also issued a “buy” rating today with a 12-month price target of $115.

Apple is expected to introduce a wide range of new products in the second half of 2016 that could further raise its stock price, including the iPhone 7, Apple Watch 2, and long-awaited 2016 MacBook Pro.

Apple’s third quarter earnings results will be released at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time, followed by a conference call with CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time. MacRumors will be providing live coverage of the news.

Tag: AAPL
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Apple Leases More Than 40,000 Square Feet of Office Space for Bengaluru, India Center

Earlier this year, Apple announced plans to build an iOS App Design and Development Accelerator in Bengaluru, India, for the purpose of supporting engineering talent within the Apple ecosystem and giving developers tools to “create innovative apps for customers around the world,” according to CEO Tim Cook.

A few new details about the development center have emerged today, including news that Apple has leased more than 40,000 square feet of space for the Bengaluru offices.

According to sources speaking with The Economic Times, the new Apple center will cover two floors at Galleria, located in North Bengaluru. The office space Apple is interested in is owned by Standard Brick Tile Company, and includes other companies like Atkins and Comviva as tenants within the building.

Tens of thousands of developers in India make apps for iOS, the mobile operating system that is the foundation for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

The company said Apple’s team would work to inspire and instruct developers on best practices, help them hone their skills and transform the design, quality and performance of their apps on the iOS platform

Apple’s current plan is to open the new iOS App Design and Development Accelerator sometime in early 2017. The space in Bengaluru will be the second biggest of Apple’s facilities in India, following the company’s proposed 250,000 square foot campus in Hyderabad. That location will be the focus of developments in Apple Maps, with up to 4,000 employees expected to be hired at the site, which will cost the company $25 million to build.

Tag: India
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Casio Edifice EQB-500: Watch first, connected device second

Smartwatches have taken a few headlines over the past year, with devices like the Apple Watch offering a whole range of features for when you don’t want to be using your phone.

The most important thing about the Casio Edifice is that it’s a good looking watch. That’s a great thing, because as soon as you have the Edifice on your wrist, you’ll appreciate that it’s a watch you want to wear.

This is where many of the existing smartwatches go wrong: although there’s talk of premium luxury design, many fail to fulfil those aspirations. There are exceptions: we think the Apple Watch is interesting and refined in its design, and we think the Tag Heuer Connected hits the mark too. 

But the Casio Edifice EQB-500 (which shares a design with many of the models in the Edifice range) hits that design mark well. It’s a big watch, with a depth of around 13mm, a face that’s around 43mm in diameter and a weight of approx. 175g. We love the blue colouration too: it’s unique and distinctive. There definitely aren’t enough blue watches around.

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We like that, because it has substance. The weighty feel imparts a sense of quality: where some watches are very light, the Edifice isn’t. The size of the face means you can fit plenty of information on it and the stainless steel case is liberally adorned with buttons that control the various functions on offer.

The face of the Edifice EQB-500 is a solar panel, harvesting energy from light to power its functions, so there’s no need to change the battery or wind it up. The face offers a mock-chronograph look, fused with the chunkiness of a typical diver’s watch design. There are big hour markers, a ticking second hand and illumination on the hour and minute hands.

The main crown screws down for protection against water ingress, with a 100m water resistance offered.

The metal link strap offers a folding clasp and fairly simple adjustment from the push pin links. If you are going to remove the links yourself (which is easy), make sure you don’t lose the small locking sleeves that sit inside the links to stop the pins falling out. The links have arrows on the underside to indicate the direction you should push the pins out, so it’s an easy DIY job.

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Casio Edifice Watch app 

Casio has long been associated with watches that do a lot, from the G Shock family through to Edifice. In the case of this model, it offers Bluetooth, which means it offers a range of connected features in conjunction with the smartphone app.

A long press of the Bluetooth button will see the second hand spin around to the Bluetooth logo on the watch, as it seeks the app to connect to. This generally describes how you identify all the functions on watch, because hands move to point to fairly subtle indicators on the face, so you know what you’re looking at and others won’t. 

Connection to the app is fairly easy: it takes a little time to pair, but generally once it’s done, it’s easy to connect again.

Generally speaking, the app is there to manage all the watch’s functions and so that you can see what’s going on. It lets the watch sync to the time on the phone, although you can also manually power the hands back and forth directly on the watch if you need to. 

One the aims here is to make it simple for those who travel. When you arrive in a new location and your phone changes timezone, the app will notify you to connect your watch so it can be automatically set to the local time.

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There are world time functions, so you can allocate a zone for a second dial. If you have family or business contacts in a different location, or are away from home and want at-a-glance confirmation of what time it is, than that dial is for you. 

The watch app will also let you set alarms, manage notifications from emails – although there’s no display to see what they might be, and you have to register your email account in Casio’s app, so it’s not great. There is also a stopwatch and timer functions, with a range of race tracks included in the app. As Edifice is aligning itself with motor racing, this fits the theme.

The app, however, is possibly the worst aspect of the Casio Edifice. The user experience is poor, the app is badly laid out and when the watch isn’t connected, the app permanently asks to be reconnected – on Android at least. That sees the app always in the notifications area of your phone, and you have to force stop to get rid of it. 

In reality, it either needs to connect in the background on its own, or it needs to close until you open it again, rather than wait, as if tapping its foot, suggesting that your watch is the most important thing you phone is connected to.

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Overall, the Casio Edifice EQB-500 is a nice watch. It looks good, it’s clear in telling you the time and it feels great on the wrist. It’s a cut above your average smartwatch in build and design, although it doesn’t attempt to give you the functionality that an Android Wear or Apple Watch watch might through its Bluetooth connection.

The Casio Edifice EQB-500 is available now for around £300, if you want something that’s watch first, connected device second.

Motorola Moto E3 (2016) vs Moto E (2015): What’s the difference?

Lenovo-owned Motorola has launched several phones this year, hitting a range of price points. The Moto Z aims for the higher end of the market, the Moto G falls towards to lower end of the mid-range, while the latest Moto E continues to fulfill the budget sector.

How does the Moto E3 compare to last year’s model though and do you get more for your £100 this time around?

We have put 2016’s Moto E3 up against 2015’s second generation of Moto E to see what the differences are and how much has changed.

Motorola Moto E3 vs Moto E (2015): Design

The Motorola Moto E3 takes its design cues from the Moto G4. It has a slim body that measures 8.6mm, a front-facing speaker at the bottom and the rear has a camera lens and LED flash housed in the same raised element.

The signature indented “M” is also present beneath the camera and flash array. The Moto E3 has a footprint of 143.8 x 71.6mm and hits the scales at 141g.

The Motorola Moto E second generation is a little bulkier than the latest model, measuring 12.3mm at its thickest point, but it is smaller at 129.9 x 66.8mm. It weighs 145g so it is slightly heavier than the new Moto E.

The rear features a larger camera lens, still centralised like the new Moto E, but there is no LED flash. The signature indented “M” sits in the same place, while the front has one speaker at the top, but not the bottom.

Motorola Moto E3 vs Moto E (2015): Display

The Motorola Moto E3 has a 5-inch display that is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. It is an IPS LCD display and it has a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, which results in a pixel density of 294ppi.

The 2015 Moto E has a slightly smaller 4.5-inch display, which is the same size as the Moto G when it originally launched. It too is an IPS LCD screen and it is also protected by Gorilla Glass 3.

The resolution on the second generation of Moto E is 960 x 540 pixels, which results in a pixel density of 245ppi. That means the new Moto E does theoretically have a sharper display than its predecessor, but the difference is pretty minor because of the size increase and won’t be noticeable to the human eye.

Motorola Moto E3 vs Moto E (2015): Cameras

The Moto E3 features an 8-megapixel rear camera, with an LED flash as we mentioned, coupled with a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The rear will be capable of 720p video recording and it will offer features including burst mode, HDR and panorama. 

The second generation of Moto E has a 5-megapixel rear camera with an aperture of f/2.2. It doesn’t offer a flash of any kind but the LTE model is also capable of 720p video recording. The front-facing camera on 2015’s model of Moto E is VGA, which means the new model should offer significant improvements when it comes to selfies and video calling.

Motorola Moto E3 vs Moto E (2015): Hardware

The Motorola Moto E3 features a quad-core 1GHz MediaTek processor, along with 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, microSD expansion up to 32GB and a battery capacity of 2800mAh.

Last year’s Moto E features a quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor and 1GB within the LTE model. It also comes with 8GB of internal storage and microSD support for storage expansion up to 32GB.

The 2015 Moto E has a battery capacity of 2390mAh so the new Moto E should last a little longer, although it does have a larger screen to power.

Motorola Moto E3 vs Moto E (2015): Software

The Moto E3 launches on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and features very little bloatware over the top, delivering an almost pure Android experience. It will no doubt see an update to Android Nougat shortly after the software launches officially towards the end of September.

The previous Moto E originally launched on Android Lollipop, but it has since been updated to Marshmallow. It too has very little bloatware meaning quick software updates. It isn’t yet clear if it will be updated to Nougat though.

Motorola Moto E3 vs Moto E (2015): Conclusion

The Motorola Moto E3 sees some quite significant developments over the second generation. The design has improved, the display is larger and offers a higher resolution and the battery capacity has also increased.

The Moto E3 also sees some good developments in the camera department including the addition of a rear flash and an increase in resolution, the latter of which should be especially noticeable in the front-facing snapper.

You get quite a bit for your £100 with the Moto E3. For those choosing between the two devices being compared here, the new model is definitely the one to opt for. For those considering moving from last year’s model to the Moto E3, there certainly appears to be plenty to warrant the upgrade.

Scientists create glasses-free 3D for the movie theater

Watching glasses-free 3D on a TV is no longer an outlandish concept, but that hasn’t been true for movie theaters. How are you supposed to create the same parallax effect for everyone, whether they’re up front or way in the back? Researchers at MIT CSAIL and Israel’s Weizmann Institute for Science finally have a practical answer. Their Cinema 3D tech creates multiple parallax barriers in a single display, using lenses and mirrors to deliver a range of angles across the whole theater. And unlike previous attempts at large-scale glasses-free 3D, you don’t have to take a hit to resolution.

You won’t get to forego the unwieldy eyewear for a while. The prototype is only slightly larger than a pad of paper, and uses 50 lens/mirror combos to achieve its 3D effect. You’d need a far bigger and more intricate system to make it work at the local movie house, which might make it prohibitively expensive. However, it’s imaginable that a future, optimized version might find its way into theaters and spare you from one of the biggest hassles in modern moviegoing.

Source: Weizmann Institute of Science, MIT CSAIL (YouTube)