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.

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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.

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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)