Sprint's quarterly results worsen

Sprint Nextel had another bad quarter. The carrier reported worsening results in the third quarter that included a 52 percent drop in profits, a spike in churn and a net loss of 188,000 postpaid subscribers. The carrier's postpaid churn of 2.4 percent increased 30 basis points compared with the second quarter. Compare that to Cingular's 1.5 percent churn rate. More worrisome is the defection rate of iDEN subscribers, those valuable higher spending customers. Research firm Technology Business Research believes the company's Nextel-branded iDEN subscriber base, not counting customers it acquired from Nextel Partners, stands at almost exactly the same point it did when Sprint and Nextel completed their acquisition in August 2005. How much worse are things going to get?

For more about Sprint Nextel's results:
- check out this article from The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)