OVERLAND PARK, Kan. � Sprint will spend up to $6 billion for its network during fiscal year 2018, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said last month. This represents a trebling of recent capital spending.
Sprint CFO Tarek Robbiati said recently at an investor conference that CAPEX amount will likely be maintained for the following year, and the carrier�s finances are solid enough that adjusted free cash flow should be �around break-even� despite the spending hike, according to fiercewireless.com.
Sprint has been criticized while focusing on small cells to densify its network, minimizing its spending on traditional towers. That strategy hasn�t always been as effective as the carrier hoped, CEO Marcelo Claure said last month, and Sprint will make macrocells a higher priority as CAPEX ramps up, according to the same article.
Robbiati said Sprint is pursuing a �neighborhood expansion� that will focus primarily on shoring up capacity within its existing footprint rather than expanding coverage. The CFO outlined plans add �a few thousand� more towers; to add tri-band support to all its towers; and, to deploy massive MIMO in its network.�
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