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Sprint's revenue beats estimate as network upgrade progresses

[July 30, 2014]  By Marina Lopes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sprint Corp  reported higher-than-expected second-quarter revenue on Wednesday, as the company expanded its high-speed coverage and came closer to completing a network upgrade that had caused a massive drop in customers.

Sprint has slashed prices and offered customer guarantees in an attempt to offset subscriber losses after a shutdown of its older Nextel network and from technical problems related to a massive overhaul of Sprint's remaining network.

Sprint's network upgrade is "largely complete," its chief executive officer, Dan Hesse, said in a press release.

The company, 80 percent owned by Japan's SoftBank Corp <9984.T>, posted a profit of $23 million, or 1 cent a share, in the quarter, reversing a loss of $1.6 billion, or 53 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $8.8 billion from $8.9 billion a year earlier, but beat the average analyst estimate of $8.7 billion according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The company lost 181,000 contract subscribers, fewer than the average estimate of 293,000. Sprint shares were up 1 percent to $8.08 in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Marina Lopes; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Jeffrey Benkoe)

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