According to a recent survey, the company most likely to be hurt by AT&T’s (T) launch of the Apple (AAPL) iPhone is Sprint (S). Sprint tends to have more high-end multimedia phones than its competitors do. "I think it’s going to be a little bit more difficult for Sprint because their customers will have a natural affinity for the product," UBS analyst John Hodulik said.
Add this to Sprint’s other lists of problems and it is hard to understand why the company’s shares trade at over $22 which is near their 52-week high.
Sprint has experienced very little subscriber growth which AT&T Wireless and Verizon Wireless have added new customers at a brisk pace.
Sprint is also betting its future on WiMax broadband. The company says building out this network will cost $3 billion, but that estimate could be low. Press reports say that the cellular service provider is in talks with recent WiMax IPO Clearwire (CLWR) about about a business combination which could save capital expenditures because both companies would not have to build parallel systems.
It does not seem to add up to a 52-week high.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
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