Sprint credits Q2 subscriber gains to smartphone demand

Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) reported second quarter losses of $760 million, almost double a year-ago loss of $384 million, with revenue slipping 1.4 percent to $8.0 billion--however, the operator also added net positive wireless customers for the first time in three years. Sprint gained a total of approximately 111,000 net subscribers in Q2, reporting positive net postpaid subscriber growth of 136,000 on its CDMA network and 285,000 for the Sprint brand, as well as best ever year-over-year quarterly net postpaid subscriber loss improvement of 763,000. The carrier credited the turnaround to consumer demand for smartphones including the HTC Evo and BlackBerry Curve, noting that about 9 percent of postpaid subscribers upgraded their handsets during the period. Sprint now serves 48.2 million customers, including 33.2 million postpaid subscribers.

Sprint posted wireless postpaid ARPU of approximately $55, down year-over-year from $56 in Q2 2009 but remaining flat sequentially. The carrier said the decline is due to lower overage, casual data and text revenues resulting from the increasing popularity of its fixed-rate bundle plans. Unlike rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which reported their Q2 results last week, Sprint did not break out wireless data revenue and usage metrics for the quarter.

For more on Sprint's second quarter results:
- read this release
- check out FierceWireless' Q2 earnings page

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