Last year, the Sprint Network and its customers finally got the chance to buy the iPhone, but it didn't come cheap. The price tag? About 15.5 billion dollars. The decision to do it? Questionable. In an interview with Mobile World Live, CEO Dan Hesse defended the decision to bet heavily on bringing the iPhone to Sprint. Hesse makes a lot of claims regarding iPhone users, but are they true?

"Subsidises are heavy for the iPhone," Hesse explained. "Four out of every 10 iPhones we sold are for new customers. That's roughly double the rate of either of our competitors, so we're pulling a lot of customers from our competitors." Additionally, he contends that iPhone users are more loyal and use, on average, less data than other cell phone platforms. "iPhone customers have a lower level of churn and they actually use less data on average than a high-end 4G Android device. So from a cost point of view and a customer lifetime value perspective. They're more profitable than the average smartphone customer," Hesse said.