Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) had a mediocre quarter, but that was an improvement on the recent past. The company still has to pray its national WiMax initiative will draw subscribers when it gets going next year.

Revenue rose about 2% to $10.2 billion. For the second quarter, diluted earnings per share (EPS) from continuing operations were 1 cent, compared with 10 cents a year earlier

Perhaps the most important thing about the wireless company's numbers is that it is not losing customers. According to the company's earnings release: "Post-paid net additions increased more than 235,000 from the first quarter and were a positive 16,000 for the quarter." The churn rate of customers dropped to 2% from 2.3% in Q1, the immediately previous quarter.

Sprint is the odd company that gets a market benefit from not doing worse. If it were doing better, imagine the windfall for shareholders. Over the last year, the company's stock is up about 23%. On earnings news, shares are up another 3% this morning.

Now, the market gets to wait to see if Sprint's bet on WiMax will pay off. The company is using the new wireless broadband standard to build its high-speed network instead of opting for the 3G technology being used by AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ).

It is a Hail Mary pass, but someone may catch it.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.