Sprint posts higher quarter revenue, subscriber losses

NEW YORK Feb 7 (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp, which is seeking to sell 70 percent of its shares to Japan's SoftBank Corp, posted higher fourth-quarter revenue even as it lost subscribers due to the wind-down of its older Nextel network.

Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. mobile service provider, said on Thursday it had a net loss of 243,000 subscribers in the quarter, compared with the average expectation for a loss of 292,000 from five analysts contacted by Reuters.

It posted a quarterly loss of $1.32 billion, or 44 cents per share, compared with a loss of $1.30 billion, or 43 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Revenue rose to $9.01 billion from $8.72 billion. Wall Street expected $8.92 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.