Sprint Corporation: number of wireless subscribers 2012-2019, by account type

In the fourth quarter of 2019, over 33 million of Sprint Corporation’s wireless subscribers were retail postpaid wireless subscribers, a significant amount more than the 8.27 million prepaid prescribers and 12.9 million wholesale and affiliate subscribers. Retail postpaid subscribers have consistently been the largest division of Sprint Corporation’s wireless subscribers. On 1 April 2020, the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint was completed, seeing T-Mobile acquire most of the Sprint business. Sprint's prepaid business is to be taken over by DISH Network Corporation.

Customer base and satisfaction

Postpaid subscribers are billed according to their use of mobile services at the end of each month. As such, it is in the provider’s interest that the contract is for a long term contract of one to three years, and that the customer has a dependable credit history to indicate the likelihood of them paying the bill. Of the approximately 31 percent of Americans using Sprint as a mobile phone carrier, the majority of the customers are between the ages of 30-49 years. As of 2019, Sprint has a customer satisfaction score of 65 out of 100, the lowest of the mobile network operators within the United States.

Sprint in the US mobile market

The fourth largest telecommunication provider in the United States, Sprint Corporation had a revenue of 32.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2018. The company also has the fourth largest share of the wireless subscription market, at just over 12 percent. Sprint’s main competitors for the U.S. market’s 400 million mobile subscribers are Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. AT&T and Verizon have the largest share of the market with around a third of subscriptions going to each of the two carriers.