(By Balachander) Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE:S) posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss as an increase in operating expenses offset revenue growth.
Net revenue beat Wall Street projections, and shares jumped in premarket trading.
The Overland Park, Kansas-based mobile service provider's loss per share widened to 46 cents from 28 cents in the year-ago quarter, also coming in worse than consensus estimate of a loss of 40 cents.
Net operating revenue rose 6 percent to $8.84 billion, beating market expectations of a 5.0 percent growth for the second quarter.
Total net operating expenses jumped 15 percent to $9.47 billion.
Wireless net additions plunged to 283,000 from 1.1 million. Sprint platform added 442,000 net postpaid customers, while the Nextel platform lost 688,000 net postpaid customers during the three month period.
Total retail postpaid churn was 1.79 percent, compared with 1.75 percent in the same period of last year.
Sprint reported 1.5 million iPhone sales in the quarter ended June.
Adjusted OIBDA margin improved to 17.9 percent from 17.2 percent in the prior-year period.
The stock, which has been trading between $2.10 and $5.27 over the past year, closed previous session at $3.37.