iPhone Brings 720,000 New Subscribers to Sprint

Back in October, the long-rumored Sprint iPhone finally rolled out to customers in the United States and today, the carrier announced the fruits of its decision to carry the iconic smartphone. The company has revealed that it endured a a $1.3 billion net loss during the fourth quarter of 2011 but that it has seen the best growth in subscribers since 2005.

Breaking down the numbers, Sprint sold a grand total of 1.8 million iPhones during its first quarter of availability and that 40 percent of those who bought the iPhone were new customers to the Now Network.

So, doing the math, that means that Sprint put the iPhone in the hands of about 720,000 new customers.

Sprint offers both the iPhone 4S – Apple’s latest version of the iPhone, as well as the iPhone 4.

In regards to that 1.3 billion loss, that can likely be attributed to the fact that the company was rumored to have put up a ton of cash, reports put it at around $20 billion or so, in order to secure the iPhone.

Still, Sprint’s CEO says that the launch was a success. Said Hess:

Our strong fourth quarter performance illustrates the power of matching iconic devices like the iPhone with our simple, unlimited plans and industry-leading customer experience.

During the past year, Sprint added more than 5 million net new customers and grew wireless service revenue by more than 5 percent, including 17 percent for the Sprint platform.

While it’s unknown whether or not Sprint will be carrying the iPhone 5, it’s safe to assume that the carrier will indeed be part of the launch plans. The carrier is currently making the transition from WiMax 4G to 4G LTE and both the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 are both rumored to feature 4G LTE capabilities.

4G LTE offers data speeds that can be up to 10 times faster than normal 3G speeds.

Sprint has announced that it will be rolling out its 4G LTE network by mid-2012 and has announced a grand total of six launch markets where the service will be available.

Read our review of the iPhone 4S.