In announcing its latest financial results, Sprint Nextel says it activated 1.5 million iPhones in the third quarter of 2012. The number has remained pretty much consistent for three consecutive quarters.

Sprint says that 40% of the Apple smartphones sold were to new customers. The wireless carrier say it's surpassed the one million LTE smartphone mark before the launch of the iPhone 5 -- but didn't say how many units of the latest Apple smartphone it sold during the third quarter.

Sprint reported wireless service revenues of nearly US$7.3 billion during the quarter, an increase of nearly 6% year-over-year. Wireless service revenues for the Sprint platform grew 14% year-over-year driven by postpaid ARPU [average revenue per user] growth of $3.01 and continued subscriber growth.

The company reported a net loss of $767 million and a diluted net loss of $.26 per share for the third quarter of 2012 as compared to a net loss of $301 million and a diluted net loss of $.10 per share in the third quarter of 2011. Sprint’s third quarter 2012 results include accelerated depreciation of $397 million, or negative $.13 per share (pre-tax), primarily related to Network Vision, including the expected shutdown of the Nextel platform.