Sprint continued to play the victim and struck a defeated tone during its fiscal 2018 fourth quarter earnings call with analysts. As its proposed merger with T-Mobile US seemingly teeters toward a disastrous conclusion for the nation’s fourth-largest carrier, Sprint has increasingly highlighted its myriad weaknesses as justification for regulatory approval.

It’s unclear if the strategy will work. If it fails, Sprint warned investors that the company will have no choice but to retreat even further and become a distant, less effective competitor with the nation’s other top nationwide operators.

“We remain optimistic that the government will see the compelling arguments in support of our merger,” CEO Michel Combes said during the earnings call. “If the merger doesn’t go through, we expect to continue to make improvements to the business” to reduce costs and “reposition the company in how we play and which battlefield will be ours.”

The comments echo self-disparaging comments the company made in filing with the Federal Communications Commission last month wherein it put bluntly: “simply put, Sprint is not on a sustainable competitive path.” The company’s recent disclosures “have put a finer point on the argument that the merger with T-Mobile is Sprint’s only shot at long-term viability,” analysts at Moffett Nathanson wrote in a report.

“Not only is their network badly deficient, they now concede, their communications with the investment community have also been ‘highly selective’ at best, and intentionally misleading at worst,” the analysts explained. “A debt restructuring in Sprint’s case isn’t only possible, it seems to us to be, by far, the most likely path forward if the deal is rejected.” A merger with Dish Network or a cable company is unlikely, and Sprint could decide to sell spectrum, “but that would be tantamount to burning the furniture to keep the house warm.”

Nonetheless, spending on network improvements are on the rise for Sprint, which plans to launch mobile 5G service in four markets this month, followed by five additional cities by the end of June. “We increased our network capex by 50% year-over-year and our network continued to improve as we have more LTE coverage and faster download speeds year-over year,” Combes said.

Sprint has deployed 2.5 GHz service on about 80% of its macro sites, compared to less than 60% a year ago. Small cells have also grown sixfold during the last year to 30,000 on air today, and the carrier has “approximately 1,500 Massive MIMO sites commercially on air in a few markets,” Combes said.

While Combes touted Sprint’s plans to deploy a 1,000-square-mile 5G footprint by the end of this quarter, he added that competing network operators are moving faster with more resources. “The other carriers are not standing still, investing significantly more capital into both the LTE and 5G networks,” he said. “We are making the best of the limited financial and low-band spectrum resources that we have.”

Sprint posted a $2.2 billion net loss during the quarter and revenues were up almost 4% year-over-year to $8.4 billion.