IPCS chilled on sluggish results: Affiliate points to Sprint Nextel’s ongoing troubles

Sprint Nextel Corp. affiliate iPCS Inc. said it added about 7,800 net subscribers during a fourth quarter, a number “below our previous expectation,” according to the carrier.
The company saw a monthly churn rate of 2.7% and ended December with 629,900 customers on its network. Shares of iPCS lost more than 5%, falling to $25.53 per share following the announcement.
“While we were disappointed with our subscriber growth during the quarter, we were pleased with the performance of our controlled distribution channels, which remained strong,” said CEO Tim Yager. “The subscriber growth through the Sprint-controlled and national channels continued to be weak, however, which resulted in overall subscriber growth being below our previous expectation.”
The announcement marks the latest setback for Sprint Nextel, which has been battered in recent months. The nation’s No. 3 carrier in November abandoned a partnership with WiMAX vendor Clearwire Corp., and Sprint Nextel last week saw its stock plummet after it said it would cut 4,000 jobs and close 8% of its stores.