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Sprint Loses Money, Users
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He also introduced a flat-rate monthly plan that combines voice, data, text-messaging and Internet services -- the most comprehensive flat-rate plan among the top three wireless carriers. Last week, Hesse announced a joint venture with Clearwire for a future high-speed wireless network. That deal brought in investors to pick up at least $3.2 billion in costs that Sprint would otherwise have been saddled with.
Those efforts may be paying off, said Christopher King, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus.
"The first quarter was the beginning of a clear-the-decks type of phase," King said, "and in the first quarter there's a decent chance they hit bottom."
Sprint's wireless subscriber base fell 1.5 percent from a year earlier, to 52.8 million.
Critics said that the merger, orchestrated by former chief executive Gary D. Forsee, burdened Sprint with heavy financial obligations and that the Sprint and Nextel networks were never well integrated. Those problems, along with poor customer service, contributed to the loss of subscribers, they said.
As Sprint has struggled to keep subscribers and gain new ones, competitors enjoyed booming subscriber and revenue growth. AT&T's wireless unit added 1.3 million subscribers in the first quarter, and Verizon Wireless increased its subscriber base by 1.5 million.
That makes Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, cautious about Sprint's outlook. Sprint's problems, he said, are like the game Whac-a-Mole. A new problem pops up just as the last one is smashed.
He noted that the average revenue per user in the first quarter fell 6.9 percent, to $53.60.
"Not only is Sprint losing customers," Moffett wrote in a research note. "They are losing their best customers."
