Sprint Not Losing Nearly As Many Subscribers As It Used To

“I never said Sprint’s turnaround would be quick or easy.”

That’s what CEO Dan Hesse had to say about the company’s latest financials, which met expectations despite an unpleasant loss. Reporting first quarter earnings this morning, Sprint (S) said it lost 17 cents a share, in line with analysts’ forecasts. Revenue fell two percent to $8.09 billion from $8.21 billion, but was ahead of Wall Street expectations of $8.05 billion.

A decent showing, particularly since the company managed to temper the rather dramatic subscriber losses it’s been suffering lately. Sprint lost 578,000 postpaid subscribers, better than the 623,500 analysts had been expecting and a dramatic improvement over the 1.25 million it lost a year earlier. And the company added 348,000 prepaid subscribers and 155,000 wholesale subscribers. So Sprint’s net customer loss was 75,000, quite a bit less than the 182,000 it lost during the same period a year ago. Could have been better, though. As Hesse said during a call with analysts this morning, “AT&T and Verizon Wireless have many wireless numbers I wish I could report. They are still outperforming us.”

At $4.26, Sprint shares are trading up 4.16 percent this morning.