Sprint loses 1.09 million customers, still holds on to 3rd place

Things are looking worse and worse for our favorite WiMAX-pusher. Sprint (NYSE: S) has just announced its 1Q 2008 financial results (PDF link), and they’re a doozy. The No. 3 US wireless carrier lost 1.09 million subscribers in the last quarter, with net revenue taking a 9% dive to $9.3 billion in the same period last year. Apparently, Sprint’s Simply Everything plan hasn’t helped take Sprint to new levels. The bad news comes on the heels of Qwest’s announcement that they’ll be ditching Sprint as their network provider for Verizon (NYSE: VZ)’s greener pastures.

Fortunately, Sprint can still boast of 52.8 million customers, keeping it planted in third place, ahead of T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) USA with 30 million subscribers.  Unfortunately, AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless widened the gap to first and second place by boosting their subscriber count to 71 million and 67 million users, respectively.

For what it’s worth, Sprint said that their less than stellar performance was expected as the company continues to reword its business model and evolve (we’re thinking their moving toward a data-centric model). And, with the recent Clearwire partnership announcement, Sprint’s WiMAX network should be good to go soon - hopefully boosting Sprint’s outlook.