Sprint published preliminary figures which show a number of positives for the recovering company, as it continued to add lucrative subscribers.

The company highlighted positive customer figures. It saw 347,000 postpaid phone net additions for the quarter to 30 September, doubling from the prior quarter and increasing from 62,000 in the prior-year period.

Total Sprint platform net additions were 740,000, including postpaid net additions of 344,000, prepaid net losses of 427,000, and wholesale and affiliate net adds of 823,000.

Having been trumped by the efforts of its closest rival, T-Mobile US, Sprint has been aggressively focused on customer acquisition. And while it has lost out in prepaid, it is gaining more valuable subscribers – which will benefit the bottom line.

It is set to record a net loss of $142 million, compared with a net loss of $585 million in the year-ago period, although it benefited from a non-cash after-tax gain of $218 million related to certain spectrum swaps with other operators.

Total operating revenue of $8.25 billion grew 3 per cent year-on-year, with wireless revenue of $7.85 billion up nearly 5 per cent.