Marcelo Claure: Sprint as a patient is now stable

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CALIF.—Marcelo Claure had a major challenge on his hands when he took the reins at Sprint some eight months ago. The nation's third-largest wireless carrier behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T has been struggling to hold onto and gain new customers, while bolstering customer service.

Among Claure's most recent and innovative moves was to launch Sprint's Direct2You service, essentially bringing the store experience directly to customer homes. A trained technician arrives with your new phone, transfers data from your old device, and shows you how to use the new handset.

Sprint is majority owned by Tokyo-based SoftBank and there was talk for a long time that Sprint would merge with rival T-Mobile, a deal that died because of fears that regulators would never approve it. Working within the highly competitive wireless industry, Claure has reduced the workforce.

At the Code conference, Claure said "the patient (Sprint) is doing well now (and) stable. Things were tougher than I thought (when I became CEO)."

Sprint was losing 12,000 customers a day and employees were demoralized. Sprint is now adding users.

"When you look at last quarter, we added more customers than AT&T and Verizon," Claure said. "We've got a long road ahead of us but we have to celebrate every day."

Interviewer Walt Mossberg said that in his wireless tests, Sprint has been dead last.

"We put a relentless focus on getting our network better the last eight months," Claure says.

According to one third party observer, Sprint's network has passed T-Mobile and is now number three. "I can tell you we're making progress," Claure said.

Claure wouldn't reveal how much it will cost to continue that progress building up Sprint's cellular network, but it is undoubtedly an expensive investment.

Mossberg asked Claure why cellular calls aren't handed off to Wi-Fi where Wi-Fi is available. Claure countered that Sprint already has 27 phones that already do so.

"We're the second carrier in the world (after T-Mobile) that does Wi-Fi calling on the iPhone," he said.

Sprint signed a deal with Boingo to transfer calls to Wi-Fi at 35 airports.

For now Sprint continues to offer unlimited plans to its customers, but Claure said that such plans may not be forever.

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