UPDATE 3-Sprint subscriber numbers beat even as loss widens

* Q2 shr loss 25 cents vs shr loss 13 cents year ago

* Q2 rev $8.025 bln vs street view $8.027 bln

* Lost 228,000 postpaid users vs Street view 355,000

* Sprint shares rise about 1 percent (Adds executive and analyst comment, share price, byline)

By Sinead Carew

NEW YORK, July 28 (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel (S.N) said it had lost fewer monthly contract customers in the second quarter than analysts had expected, helped by its high-speed EVO phone from HTC Corp (2498.TW).

Sprint shares initially rose more than 3 percent after it forecast additional subscriber improvements in the rest of the year and said it had lost 228,000 monthly bill-paying subscribers in the quarter, compared with the average estimate of a loss of 355,000 from eight analysts contacted by Reuters.

"It was a very good number relative to expectations," said Roe Equity Research analyst Kevin Roe.

Sprint's Chief Executive Dan Hesse told analysts on a conference call that HTC was working to increase its supply of the EVO phone, the first U.S. phone that supports fourth- generation high-speed wireless technology.

"We could definitely sell more if we could get more," Hesse said. He also acknowledged that the company still had more work to do to improve subscriber numbers.

Sprint's biggest rival Verizon Wireless, a Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) and Vodafone Group Plc (VOD.L) venture, and its No. 2 rival AT&T Inc (T.N), posted postpaid customer growth for the second quarter. [ID:nN2395698]

The company forecast growth in overall subscriber numbers for the remainder of 2010, helped by fewer losses of postpaid customers in the second half of the year than the first half.

Including prepaid customers -- those who pay for calls in advance but do not commit to contracts -- Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. mobile service said it had added 111,000 customers, leaving it with 48.2 million at the end of the period.

While Wall Street was impressed with the postpaid numbers some analysts said that a premarket share price boost of 8 percent was overdone given that net additions of 173,000 at Sprint's prepaid business, on which it has depended for growth in the last year, were weaker than expected.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Christopher King said the prepaid number was disappointing compared with his expectation for about 400,000. He also predicted that Sprint would have a tough time achieving growth in postpaid numbers.

"I don't see anything in here that's earth shattering," King said.

Sprint shares, which rose more than 3 percent early in the session, pared some of those gains by mid-morning to trade about 1 percent higher at $4.89 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The second-quarter loss widened to $760 million, or 25 cents per share, from $384 million, or 13 cents per share, a year earlier. The latest quarter included a charge of 10 cents per share for deferred tax assets.

Revenue fell to $8.025 billion from $8.141 billion and was slightly lower than the average estimate of $8.027 billion from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. (Reporting by Sinead Carew; editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Maureen Bavdek)