Sprint lost 2 million subscribers after Nextel network went dark

Sprint’s first earnings report as a SoftBank-owned company wasn’t exactly a positive one. Sprint shed 2 million customers in the second quarter, nearly 4 percent of its subscriber base.

The big reason was Nextel, which Sprint shut down completely at the end of June. The network shutdown resulted in 1.3 million iDEN subscriber losses, but that wasn’t Sprint’s only pain point. Its retail prepaid and its wholesale connection businesses also took big hits. The only area where Sprint saw growth was in postpaid contract customers, which increased by 194,000. That customer exodus contributed to the widening of its quarterly net loss to $1.6 billion from $1.4 billion a year ago. Sprint’s revenues, however, remained steady at $8.9 billion both quarter over quarter and year over year.