US operator Sprint pulled a $3bn offering of convertible bonds late Thursday, just one day after rattling the market with its intention.

In an announcement, Sprint said it had, “Decided to cancel the offering because the terms being offered were not economically attractive due to unfavourable market conditions.”

The news proved popular with investors, which promptly resumed trading Sprint shares and sent stock value up 6 per cent.

Sprint had intended to use the cash call to lighten its debt load, but the offer failed to garner interest from shareholders.

The initial move also fuelled rumours that Sprint was preparing to either sell a stake in itself, or offload its flagging iDEN operation.

Earlier this week, the WiMAX pin-up reported a loss for the quarter to end June 30, as the operator’s woes endured and customers continued to jump ship.

The loss came in at $344m, compared to a profit of $19m in the same period last year, as the operator’s wireless subscriber base shrank by 2.1 million since the same period last year.

Over 901,000 wireless users jumped ship during the quarter, with churn remaining at 2 per cent. Net operating revenues also crashed by 11 per cent to $9bn.

Yet Sprint boss Dan Hesse insists the tide is turning. “We are seeing signs of progress from our efforts to improve the customer experience, rebuild the Sprint brand and increase our profitability,” he said. “Our company-wide retention efforts, which include Simply Everything plans, our Now Network campaign and the launch of the Instinct handset are proving to be effective retention tools, particularly for high-value customers, and this is beginning to have positive impacts on churn and ARPU.”