Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) reported Thursday that its first-quarter loss narrowed to $439 million, or 15 cents a share, from $865 million, or 29 cents, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue climbed to $8.31 billion from $8.09 billion. Analysts, on average, expected the company to report a loss of 22 cents a share on revenue of $8.2 billion.
"With net subscriber additions of 1.1 million, best ever postpaid churn and growing net operating revenues, Sprint maintained the momentum we had exiting 2010," said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO. "We've added two million wireless subscribers over the past two quarters. In spite of Verizon's iPhone launch and aggressive competitive responses to it, our simple and unlimited plans, 4G leadership, strong customer service, and successful multi-brand strategy drove solid Sprint performance for the quarter."
Shares of the company rallied more han 4% in Thursday's pre-market trading.
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