KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Sprint Nextel sold 1.8 million iPhones late last year — 40 percent of them to new customers — and ballooned its net loss to $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter.
The loss partly reflected subsidies Sprint gives customers on each of the iPhones it sells, charging customers less than it costs to buy the phones from Apple. Such subsidies are common in the industry, and Sprint executives have said customers’ payments over time will make the iPhone profitable for Sprint. IPhone sales helped Sprint boost its number of subscribers by 1.6 million in the quarter to 55 million. The total is highest in Sprint’s history, the company said.
Sprint’s net new customer growth included 161,000 under two-year contracts, 507,000 buying service month to month and 954,000 buying service on Sprint’s network through others.
Revenues rose to $8.72 billion in the quarter, up more than 5 percent from a year ago. Costs other than the iPhone, including Sprint’s network upgrade project, also increased its loss, which was 40 percent higher than in the fourth quarter of 2010. The recent loss equaled 43 cents a share, compared with 31 cents a year ago. The Kansas City Star
