Nov. 4, 2009 (Business Wire) -- Sprint (NYSE:S) Business Markets Group (BMG) continued to make strong contributions to Sprint’s performance in the third quarter, generating continued operational and financial momentum, expanding its product portfolio, launching the next generation of wireless service in markets across the U.S., winning contracts among customers in all segments of the market and continuing to improve the customer experience for business customers.

In the second quarter, revenue attributed to business customers was more than $3.5 billion, generated across Sprint’s wireless and wireline networks. Notably, Internet revenues in the third quarter were up 5 percent year-over-year, reflecting strong demand for Global MPLS services. Internet revenues have increased to 41 percent of wireline revenues in the third quarter, up from 35 percent in the same quarter last year.

BMG contributed to the best year-over-year postpaid gross addition improvement in Sprint Nextel history by delivering the highest number of total business customer additions in years. Major customer wins in the quarter included leading banks, tier one retailers, healthcare providers, a multi-national energy company, an airline and U.S. cities. Additionally, business customer deactivations decreased to their lowest point since second quarter of 2008.

In the quarter, Sprint sharply differentiated itself from rivals with innovative devices that have performed well among businesses, including the Palm Pre, the Sprint MiFi™ 2200 by Novatel Wireless and the first Android device – the HTC Hero. In all, Sprint has launched or announced 16 new smart, touch and QWERTY devices with a full selection of operating systems in 2009.

Launched in the third quarter, Sprint Business Advantage Plans have been roundly applauded by customers and industry experts for packing more value, flexibility and simplicity than any other similar pricing plans for business. And Sprint’s core offering to businesses – its network – in the quarter reached a new all-time high performance level.

In terms of business services, BMG launched SIP trunking, which enables a single IP connection to converge voice, data and video communications; refreshed its Managed Network Solutions portfolio and built momentum for its Unified Communications-enablement offering among customers. Sprint received top honors in the Nemertes 2009 Pilothouse awards for MPLS Services, ranking highest overall and winning top honors in value, customer service and technology. Sprint also beat chief rivals, AT&T and Verizon in IP network reliability.

Sprint’s customer experience among business customers has steadily improved. The Business Care group has improved first-call resolution for 19 months straight.