Sprint Boosts Financial Guidance

The company now expects fourth-quarter earnings per share of between 37 cents to 39 cents vs. earlier estimates of 34 cents to 36 cents. For the year, Sprint raised the FON Group's earnings per share to $1.35 to $1.37 compared with an earlier estimate of $1.32 to $1.34 a share.

Sprint said the boost results from cost cutting and a favorable industry settlement on pay-phone access charges that is expected to add 2 cents of earnings per share.

FON Group's EBITDA for the year is expected to be $4.5 billion.

The EBITDA estimate for Sprint's PCS Group rose to $2.8 billion from $2.7 billion due to reduced bad debt expenses and improved billing collections, the company said.

Sprint on Wednesday consolidated the network operations of its Global Markets and PCS groups, resulting in the layoff of 1,000 employees over the next 12 months. Another 1,100 layoffs are expected across Sprint, said the company.