Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) reported a first-quarter net loss of $863 million or $0.29 per share, compared to a net loss of $439 million or $0.15 per share in the first quarter of 2011. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report a loss of $0.41 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Net operating revenues for the quarter rose to $8.73 billion from $8.31 billion in the prior year quarter. Twenty eight analysts had consensus revenue estimate of $8.71 billion for the quarter.
The company had wireless service revenues of $7.2 billion during the quarter, an increase of more than 7 percent year-over-year, driven primarily by Sprint platform postpaid ARPU growth of $4.03. The company reported total net subscriber additions of nearly 1.1 million during the first quarter, bringing total ending subscribers to a record 56 million.
In addition, as part of Network Vision, Sprint continues to expect to launch 4G LTE in six major cities by mid-year 2012 including Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Atlanta, Kansas City and Baltimore.
The company expects 2012 Adjusted OIBDA to be at the high-end of the previous forecast of between $3.7 billion and $3.9 billion. The company said it continues to anticipate full year consolidated net service revenue growth of 4 to 6 percent.
Sprint continues to expect full year capital expenditures of approximately $6 billion in 2012, excluding capitalized interest.
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