Sprint - Nextel 2011 Annual Report Download - page 38

Table of Contents
Average Monthly Service Revenue per Subscriber and Subscriber Trends
The table below summarizes average number of retail subscribers and ARPU for the years ended December 31, 2011, 2010 and 2009. Additional information
about the number of subscribers, net additions to subscribers, ARPU, and average rates of monthly postpaid and prepaid subscriber churn for each quarter since the first
quarter 2009 may be found in the tables on the following pages.
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Postpaid ARPU for 2011 increased as compared to 2010 primarily due to increased revenues from the $10 premium data add-on charges for all smartphones
and fee increases in our handset protection plan. Postpaid ARPU for 2010 declined slightly as compared to 2009 due to declines in overage revenues resulting from the
increased popularity of fixed-rate bundled plans including the Any Mobile AnytimeSM feature.
Prepaid ARPU for 2011 declined slightly compared to 2010 primarily as a result of net additions of our Assurance Wireless brand whose subscribers carry a
lower ARPU, partially offset by an increase in ARPU for the remaining prepaid brands as subscribers are choosing higher priced plans to take advantage of international
offerings and the increased availability of smartphones. Prepaid ARPU decreased during 2010 as compared to 2009 due to prepaid subscribers acquired in our fourth
quarter 2009 business combination of Virgin Mobile as well as net subscriber additions under our Assurance Wireless brand launched in early 2010, which carry a lower
average revenue per subscriber compared to Sprint's other prepaid subscribers. Average retail ARPU increased slightly for 2011 compared to 2010 primarily as a result of
the increased postpaid ARPU which was partially offset by an increased weighting of average prepaid subscribers to total subscribers which carry a lower ARPU. The
lower prepaid ARPU and the increased weighting of average prepaid subscribers to total subscribers resulted in a decline in our average retail ARPU for 2010 compared
to 2009.
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Year Ended December 31,
2011 2010 2009
(subscribers in thousands)
Average postpaid subscribers 32,935 33,249 34,640
Average prepaid subscribers 13,672 11,272 5,313
Average retail subscribers 46,607 44,521 39,953
ARPU(1):
Postpaid $ 57.27 $ 54.94 $ 55.83
Prepaid $ 27.40 $ 27.76 $ 32.64
Average retail $ 48.51 $ 48.06 $ 52.74
(1)
A
RPU is calculated by dividing service revenue by the sum of the average number of subscribers in the applicable service category. Changes in average monthly
s
ervice revenue reflect subscribers for either the postpaid or prepaid service category who change rate plans, the level of voice and data usage, the amount of service
credits which are offered to subscribers, plus the net effect of average monthly revenue generated by new subscribers and deactivating subscribers.