Sprint Nextel Corporation (S) has found a winner for almost a year in its Boost Mobile prepaid wireless brand. For Sprint, this has been a savior. The company has been leeching valuable contract wireless customers to the competition and it was hurt badly in 2009 because of this.

At the same time, it has gained more prepaid wireless subscribers than any other carrier, and added large partner Virgin Mobile late last year to solidify its strategy in growing prepaid wireless as a large core of its customer base. It was probably the only thing to do -- both AT&T Inc. (T) and Verizon Wireless were taking its subscribers by the hundreds of thousands throughout 2009, even as Sprint fought back with lower-priced plans and compelling smartphones.

Sprint Nextel Corporation (S) is taking the executive that was in charge of its Boost Mobile prepaid brand when subscriber growth exploded almost a year ago and putting him in charge of the company's 4G wireless expansion efforts.

When Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) released a $50/month "unlimited everything" plan with its Boost Mobile prepaid unit back at the start of the year, it never knew what firestorm it would eventually set off. Indeed, that move caused a huge spike in Q1 subscribers to Sprint, with a number north of 700,000 -- and it caused the prepaid wireless competition to start offering low monthly costs for unlimited talktime plans (often with unlimited use of other features).

Tracfone, the largest prepaid service in the U.S., has finally fallen into place. The prepaid reseller's "Straight Talk" pan will cost $45 per month for unlimited talktime, further making comparisons of prepaid and post-paid wireless easy for many cash-strapped consumers. With post-paid wireless plans costing $99 and up for unlimited talk, prepaid plans for half the cost are soaring during the recession.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) could be hurting itself by making prepaid wireless so affordable, but for now, the wireless carrier is cleaning up. In fact, Sprint Nextel's only shining light is the acquisition of wireless customers with its Boost Mobile prepaid brand. But, could Sprint's prepaid service threaten the larger wireless companies like AT&T, Inc. (NYSE: T)?

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), the trying to be the"comeback kid" under CEO and telecom vet Dan Hesse, just lost another swath of customers in its latest quarter. The company reported almost an almost $600 million net loss in its latest quarter as its postpaid (contract) customers continue to defect to the competition.

All in all, this quarter wasn't as bad for Sprint as previous quarters. The third-largest wireless carrier in the U.S lost 182,000 wireless customers last quarter, leaving it with under 50 million total wireless customers. Still, the last quarter of 2008 saw Sprint lose about 1.3 million customers, so this past quarter was quite the marked improvement.

Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) really hit on something back in January when it rolled out a $50 unlimited everything plan from its Boost Mobile prepaid brand. Customers could get nationwide unlimited minutes, texting, data and walkie-talkie for $50 a month.

Customers went nuts and started snatching up Boost Mobile phones and that plan by the thousands. Soon afterward, other prepaid competitors like T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile followed suit with cheap unlimited plans of their own.