Sprint's Revenue Beats Estimates as it Adds Subscribers

Sprint, the No.4 U.S. wireless carrier, reported slightly better-than expected revenue as heavy discounts helped it attract the most postpaid subscribers on a net basis for any first quarter in nine years.

Sprint, whose shares were up 3.9 percent in premarket trading, reported 173,000 postpaid wireless additions in the quarter ended June 30, compared with a net loss of 12,000 in the same period last year.

The quarter also had the lowest postpaid phone churn in the company's history, Chief Executive Marcelo Claure said in a statement on Monday.

Postpaid phone user churn, or the rate at which subscribers defect to other networks, was 1.39 percent.

However, the company's net loss widened to $302 million, or 8 cents per share, from $20 million, or 1 cent per share, a year earlier.

The latest quarter included contract termination charges of $113 million, primarily related to an agreement with wireless carrier Ntelos.

Sprint, majority owned by Japan's SoftBank Corp, said its net operating revenue fell marginally to $8.01 billion. Analysts on average had expected $7.98 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Up to Friday's close of $4.62, Sprint's shares had risen 27.6 percent since the start of the year.

(Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)