US operator Sprint Nextel reported a net loss of USD 863 million or 29 cents a share for the first quarter, hurt by depreciation of USD 543 million ahead of the planned shutdown of its Nextel iDen network. In the year-earlier period, it had a loss of USD 439 million or 15 cents a share. Sprint also booked a one-time gain of USD 170 million in the quarter for ending its spectrum contract with LightSquared. OIBDA, excluding the one-time items, fell 20 percent from a year ago to USD 1.213 billion, due to higher costs for more smartphone sales, while revenues rose 5 percent to USD 8.734 billion. The company reported mobile service revenues up 7 percent year-on-year to USD 7.2 billion, as strong iPhone sales helped grow its postpaid customer base. Postpaid ARPU improved to USD 59.88 from USD 56.17 a year ago. Of the nearly 1.1 million customers added in the three months, 263,000 were postpaid, 870,000 prepaid and 785,000 at wholesale and affiliate dealers. The total customer base reached over 56.1 million at the end of March. Sprint sold over 1.5 million iPhones in the quarter, of which 44 percent were to new customers. Sprint increased capex 44 percent to USD 800 million, as its upgraded capacity and speeds on the mobile network, while shutting down the first 1,600 iDen sites. The operator confirmed it will launch LTE in six cities by mid-year. Operating cash flow was up 6 percent from a year earlier to USD 978 million in Q1. Sprint said it now expects to report adjusted OIBDA for 2012 at the high end of its previous forecast of USD 3.7-3.9 billion. It maintained the outlook for service revenue growth of 4-6 percent and capex of around USD 6 billion.
