Better Buy: AT&T vs. Sprint
The telecom industry is a very competitive one, and two of the more notable brands in the field are AT&T (NYSE: T) and Sprint (NYSE: S). While they're at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of size and resources, that doesn't guarantee that one is a better buy than the other. With Sprint and T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) looking to merge, the two companies together could be a whole lot stronger and more competitive. But since that deal's not wrapped up just yet, let's take a closer look at how Sprint, on its own, measures up against AT&T.
Sprint released its fiscal 2019 second-quarter earnings in early November, and they weren't very inspiring. Net operating revenues of $7.8 billion during the quarter were down 7.6% from the prior year's $8.4 billion top line. They were also down 4.3% sequentially from the first quarter. Although the company's operating expenses haven't been rising, lower revenues have been compressing its margins, and Sprint has posted a loss in each of the two quarters so far in fiscal 2019. Sprint is also losing wireless subscribers at an increasing rate, with a 396,000 net subscriber loss in Q2, which is more than the 175,000 subscriber decline it saw in Q1.
One area where the telecom industry will see significant growth opportunities is in 5G. In October, Sprint announced that its True Mobile 5G service has now reached nine major cities, including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. It estimates that about 16 million people currently have access to the network.
Source Fool.com
