Sprint Nextel reported its best customer additions in five years for the third quarter. The company added almost 1.3 million new mobile customers in Q3 for a total of 53.4 million. Net additions included 485,000 prepaid users and 835,000 wholesale and affiliate customers, offset by the loss of 44,000 postpaid subscribers. The strong customer growth came ahead of the iPhone launch by the operator on 15 October, which Sprint said has already surpassed expectations. The operator's quarterly revenues rose 2 percent to USD 8.33 billion, and adjusted OIBDA increased 5 percent to USD 1.40 billion. This was supported by an increase in postpaid ARPU to USD 58 from USD 55 a year ago, as well as prepaid customer growth at the brands Boost, Virgin and Assurance Wireless. The net loss narrowed to USD 301 million or 10 cents a share, from USD 911 million or 30 cents a share a year ago. Capital expenditures jumped to USD 760 million from USD 462 million a year earlier, in order to support growth in mobile data services. This led to negative free cash flow of USD 273 million for the quarter. The company maintained its outlook for a full-year net gain in postpaid subscribers and higher total net additions, as well as capex of USD 3 billion for the full year. Sprint cuts its free cash flow outlook, saying the figure may be as much as USD 200 million in the red, after earlier saying it should remain positive. Sprint finished the quarter with cash of USD 3.76 billion. In addition, Sprint announced that it has amended the terms of its credit facility and increased by USD 150 million the total available, to USD 2.24 billion. The company's next scheduled debt maturities of USD 2.3 billion are due in March 2012.
