Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure made it clear that the carrier isn’t currently discussing a potential merger with a cable company in an interview with Reuters, but said such a business decision could make Sprint “formidable.”
The questioning was framed around European service provider Altice’s move to buy U.S. pay-TV providers Cablevision and Suddenlink as indicative of the growing trend for telecom/cable consolidation, further evidenced by AT&T’s merger with DirecTV.
Claure told Reuters: “It seems like everybody now wants to get into wireless, which puts Sprint in a very good position. So I think the next few months or years are going to be very active in this industry. I think it’s going to be exciting times ahead in terms of consolidation, but we don’t have any conversations with anybody.”
A merger with a cable TV provider would allow Sprint to offer customers a “quad-play,” including fixed and mobile telephony, Internet and television services.
Claure is tasked by Sprint’s parent company, Japanese powerhouse SoftBank, to turn the U.S. carrier around through a combination of network improvement, market share and cost reduction.
He addressed those points last week during the Goldman Sachs Communicopia event.
Claure specifically called out Sprint promotions to cut competitors’ customers’ bills in half and the iPhone Forever promotional campaign. In terms of customer service, he mentioned the Direct 2 You promotion, which sees Sprint reps come directly to customers, and a deal with Radio Shack that sets up branded Sprint retail locations in hundreds of the electronics retailers’ storefronts.
“I think it has been good to put Sprint back in the game from a competitive position,” he said.
On the cost side, Claure touted cutting some $1.5 billion in costs and said, looking forward, “We’re committed to basically doing the same or more. We definitely have to take cost out.”
Then, on the network side, Claure said he puts a lot of stake in Rootmetrics comparative carrier ratings.
“Network has been fascinating,” he said. Last year, “We were drop-dead last. We were last in absolutely everything. It has been a year later and we’re third. I think, more importantly … is we have a great network plan and I’ve been very public in saying by the end of 2017, I want Sprint to be the No. 1 or No. 2 carrier. Network is the most important aspect.”