Sprint Nextel narrowly exceeded analyst expectations with its fourth-quarter revenues and losses but managed to disappoint with its subscriber numbers.

The operator’s revenue rose to $9.01 billion compared to $8.72 billion in the same period in 2011. Losses were $1.32 billion and, although higher than last year’s $1.30 billion, were still just ahead of analysts’ estimates.

Its performance was helped by increased use of smartphones among its users, a central part of its attempt to match larger rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Sprint’s sales of iPhones in the fourth quarter were 2.2 million, with 38 per cent of them going to new subscribers.

However, the company struggled with its subscriber numbers.  The number of monthly contract subscribers fell by 243,000 against analyst expectations of 206,000, according to Bloomberg.  The figure includes connection figures for Sprint as well as its Nextel platform.

In the same period in 2011, Sprint added 161,000 monthly contract subscribers although it lost 456,000 subscribers in the preceding three months up to the end of September 2012.

Overall, the operator reported a net subscriber loss of 337,000, an improvement on the 423,000 net subscriber loss of the preceding quarter but far worse than the 1.62 million net additions from the same period in 2011.

Sprint expects to close the sale of a 70 per cent stake to Japan’s Softbank by mid-year. It hopes the deal will give it the firepower to better compete with its rivals in the US market.