Sprint Nextel, the third-largest US mobile phone company, on Wednesday reported losses in the second quarter as its number of customers continued to decline.

Quarterly losses were 344 million dollars, or 12 cents per share, after earnings of 19 million dollars, or 1 cent per share, in the year-earlier period, the Overland Park, Kansas-based firm said.

Revenue fell 11 per cent to 9.1 billion dollars.

The company continues to suffer the effects of a three-year-old fusion of Sprint and Nextel and has lost customers to competitors, including Verizon and AT&T, the sole US service provider for Apple's popular iPhone.