Sprint Corp, the third largest long distance carrier and second biggest independent local carrier in the US, is claiming a record quarter for its core businesses once the effects of its experiments in emerging markets and various loss making joint ventures have been excluded. Third quarter net profits to September 30 were down 32.3% at $211.4m on revenue that climbed 7.9% to $3.792bn. But core business activities grew operating profit to $689m, an increase of 12.3%. Long distance revenues increased by 8.1% to $2.25bn in the quarter, representing a 14% increase in call minutes. Local revenues rose by a modest 4.2% to $1.34bn representing the addition of some 390,000 access lines. Our third quarter reflected outstanding core business performance across-the-board, said chairman and CEO William T Esrey. Global One, Sprint’s joint venture with Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom to provide specialized telecoms services to large multi-national companies, grew its revenues by 20% in the quarter to $280m but turned in attributable losses to Sprint of $41m, up from $21m last year. Sprint PCS, the group’s mobile telecommunications service, turned in attributable losses of $186.9m up from losses last time of $47.6m. The emerging markets sector contributed a loss of around nine cents per share, up from two cents per share last time, mainly down to Sprint’s internet access and other operations the company said.
