Wireless service provider Virgin Mobile USA Inc. posted higher-than-expected third-quarter earnings Monday despite adding fewer customers to its rolls than in the same period last year.  The Warren, N.J.-based company said profit rose to $4.1 million, or 7 cents per share, for the three months that ended Sept. 30, compared with a net loss of $7.4 million, or 29 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue climbed to $305 million from $301 million.

Excluding one-time items, Virgin said it would have earned 8 cents per share. Analysts, who typically exclude one-time items, expected 4 cents per share on $314.5 million in revenue, according to polling by Thomson Reuters.  The positive results come amid generally bad news for the wireless industry, which has not seen the customary uptick in sales as the holiday season kicks in.

Improved earnings for Virgin could also be a positive signal for the company’s business model, which has seen a number of upstarts come and go.  Virgin, the wireless unit of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, is a mobile virtual network operator. Instead of building out its own network, it piggybacks on Sprint Nextel Corp.’s, leasing airtime that it repackages for its roughly 5.2 million customers. Read More →