Sprint finally starts to tu heads, but at a hefty cost - CNET

Consumers are starting to hear Sprint now.

The nation's fourth-largest wireless carrier has long struggled to get the attention of consumers, who for years were tued off by its poor reputation for coverage and reliability. Having shored up some of those network issues, Sprint has clamoring for more attention.

It hired Verizon's longtime "Can you hear me now?" pitchman, Paul Marcarelli, to make the case that Sprint is good enough and affordable enough to warrant a second look. It jumped on the Pokemon Go phenomenon by adding lures to its stores and offering experts for tips on the game (after T-Mobile said that data from the game wouldn't count against their plan for the next year). CEO Marcelo Claure has been on the road visiting local stores and listening to his customers. Most importantly, Sprint has vowed significant savings for anyone willing to switch.

The moves have paid off with a retu to growth. Sprint on Monday said it added 173,000 net new post-paid customers, or folks who have higher credit scores and pay at the end of the month, in the fiscal first quarter. That's the highest number of net new customers in nine years when excluding customers it gained from its acquisition of Nextel.

The numbers reflect the state of competition in the wireless business, where even the once battered Sprint brand can see a retu to growth thanks to the power of price cuts. Sprint is one of many carrier bending over backwards to win over your business, whether it's through lower prices, free pizzas and movies rentals or new rate plans with perks.