April 2 (Bloomberg) -- Sprint Nextel Corp., the third- largest mobile-phone service provider, missed a self-imposed deadline for hiring a president and chief operating officer to help stem customer defections.

``We continue to look for the right expertise for focus on operations, and right now there's no set timeframe to guide any further,'' Sprint spokeswoman Sara Krueger said today. Chief Executive Officer Gary Forsee said in January that he would hire a deputy by March 31.

Forsee, who ousted former COO Len Lauer last year, is probably searching for a mobile-phone executive or someone with a background in reviving businesses, said Will Power, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. in Dallas. The Reston, Virginia-based company lost about 306,000 customers in the fourth quarter, and the U.S. government eliminated Sprint last week from competition for at least $20 billion in federal agency work.

``If it's somebody from outside the industry, they should be insuring that they at least have turnaround experience,'' said Power, who has a ``neutral'' rating on the stock.

Shares of Sprint have fallen 18 percent in the past 12 months. They rose 34 cents to $19.30 at 4:28 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Turnaround Experience

``People would rather see them get hold of the right guy than make a rushed hiring,'' said Christopher Watts, a London- based analyst with Atlantic Equities LLP who has an ``underweight'' rating on the shares. ``Given where the stock is right now, it's far more critical that existing management focus on all the problems or issues they have to deliver on.''

In January, Sprint forecast more subscriber losses in the first quarter before a rebound that the company says will rely on more attractive phones and better network quality. Sprint has improved Nextel's old network to drop fewer calls, Chief Financial Officer Paul Saleh said last week at a Bank of America investor conference in New York.

``We're taking this issue off the table,'' he said.

To revamp its advertising, Sprint said today that it has hired Omnicom Group Inc.'s Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, replacing two agencies, Omnicom's TBWA/Chiat/Day and Publicis Groupe's Publicis & Hal Riney.

This month Sprint also plans to introduce a Samsung Electronics Co. phone called the UpStage that doubles as a music player. The phone will compete against Apple Computer Inc.'s iPhone, to be offered in June by AT&T Inc., operator of the largest U.S. mobile-phone service.

Verizon Wireless, the No. 2 U.S. mobile service, got most of the monthly subscribers Sprint lost in the fourth quarter, said John Hodulik, an analyst at UBS Investment Research in New York, in a research note last month. Verizon's owners are Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc.

To contact the reporter on this story: Crayton Harrison in Dallas at tharrison5@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 2, 2007 16:32 EDT