Sprint said it is making headway in adding high-value customers to its network, but the financials show it is not all upbeat for the recovering US operator.

The company reported a loss of $302 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2016, compared with a prior-year loss of $20 million, on revenue that was essentially flat at $8 billion. Service revenue fell to $6.52 billion from $7.04 billion.

As usual, the company tried to put a positive spin on the numbers, with Marcelo Claure, CEO, citing “the highest first quarter postpaid phone net additions in nine years, the lowest postpaid phone churn in company history, and finally being postpaid net port positive against all three national carriers after five years”.

Postpaid phone net additions of 173,000 marked the fourth quarter of positive net additions, and compared with a loss of 12,000 in the prior year period. It ended the period with 59.5 million Sprint platform connections, up from 56.8 million year-on-year.

Indeed, the world of Sprint is full of little victories: flat revenue from the prior sequential quarter was achieved for the first time in “over two years”; and wireless operating revenue grew 1 per cent year-on-year.

For the wireless business, operating income of $395 million was down from $542 million, on revenue of $7.6 billion.

Sprint said its bottom line was impacted by $113 million in one-off contract termination charges, primarily related to the end of a wholesale agreement with operator Ntelos.

The company also talked up its financing activities, stating that its liquidity position had increased to nearly $11 billion, having raised $2.2 billion of network-related financing, $1.1 billion from a second handset-related deal, and $2.5 billion under a new unsecured financing facility (increased from $2 billion).

It also highlighted the continued development of its network, with its LTE Plus network, which uses the operators triband spectrum holdings alongside LTE Advanced technology, launched in 33 more markets, to take the total to 237.