Sprint has reported a profit for the quarter, the first time results have been in the positive for three years, with a net income of $206 million.

Overall, the telcos have had a pretty solid quarter over in the states. Verizon added 614,000 postpaid subscribers, AT&T showed there was a glimmer of hope and T-Mobile US continued it rapid rise. Now with Sprint reported a good couple of months, there is reason to be pretty optimistic on the whole.

“Sprint reached an important milestone this quarter by returning to profitability for the first time in three years,” said Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure. “This represents the progress of a turnaround journey that has delivered improvements in postpaid phone and prepaid customer growth, a return to top-line growth, and a significantly transformed cost structure.”

Net operating revenues of $8.2 billion grew year-over-year for the fourth consecutive quarter, post-paid subscribers showed net additions of 88,000 and prepaid demonstrated net additions of 35,000. This was the second quarter of net additions in prepaid, compared to net losses of 306,000 in the same quarter last year. Not bad.

Rumours in the M&A market have continued to swirl over the last couple of days, but Sprint is starting to look like an attractive business. There is still much work to be done, however slashed costs and improved customer numbers is certainly taking the number four carrier in the right direction during its prolonged turnaround.

Claure could not be drawn into any specifics on a potential merger or acquisition during the earnings call, but it is clear he is open to ideas. What is clear is that these results might make people sit a little higher when it comes to such conversations.