June 27 (Bloomberg) -- Sprint Nextel Corp., the third- biggest U.S. mobile-phone service company, will emphasize its network's speed, video streams and music downloads in a new advertising campaign to reverse subscriber losses.

Beginning July 1, the television commercials, print ads and billboards will use the slogan ``Sprint Ahead'' and describe how customers can access data at ``SprintSpeed,'' a marketing term the company is using for its fastest wireless features.

Sprint lost monthly subscribers for three straight quarters and faces a fresh challenge this week, when Apple Inc. sells its new iPhone, which only works on AT&T Inc.'s network. Reston, Virginia-based Sprint replaced its top marketing executive and hired ad agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners this year to revamp its image.

``They have to position themselves as sort of a youth- oriented, hip, fun brand, which is going to take a complete overhaul of their current marketing strategy,'' said Michael Nelson, an analyst at Stanford Group Co. in New York.

The campaign will shift attention away from the marketing messages of AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which have emphasized the quality of phone calls in their ads, said Sprint Chief Marketing Officer Tim Kelly. San Antonio-based AT&T's ads say its wireless service drops calls less often than rivals, while Verizon extols the reliability of its network.

``They tend to, at the core, be focused on what's wrong with wireless,'' said Kelly, who replaced Mark Schweitzer in May. ``We're trying to take the opposite approach.''

Sprint shares fell 33 cents to $21.63 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have risen 15 percent this year.

Wrested Away

Sprint rivals wrested away customers, using advertising to convince consumers that they have better networks than Sprint, which had technical problems in the network it acquired in the 2005 purchase of Nextel Communications Inc.

Kelly declined to say how much Sprint will spend on the new advertising campaign. The contract with Goodby Silverstein, a unit of New York's Omnicom Group Inc., is expected to pay about $40 million, according to trade journal Adweek.

Unlike earlier advertisements, the new campaign doesn't mention the Nextel brand. The company will gradually begin using the Nextel name to describe the walkie-talkie service sold on Sprint-branded phones as it merges the two companies' networks together, Kelly said.

``It's a really powerful capability and product brand to keep alive in that context,'' he said.

Sprint will continue to use the Nextel name this year to sponsor Nascar's top auto races in the Nextel Cup Series. The company is evaluating its plans for the sponsorship in 2008 and will probably make a decision in the next few weeks, Kelly said.

Data Spending

Mobile-phone companies are encouraging customers to spend more on video and data services as prices fall for regular phone calls. Sprint led competitors in data spending in the first quarter, with subscribers paying $9.25 per month for text messaging, Internet access and other services.

AT&T, which owns the largest U.S. wireless service, formerly called Cingular Wireless, had monthly data spending of $7.88 per customer. Users of No. 2 mobile-phone service Verizon Wireless, owned by New York-based Verizon Communications Inc. and Newbury, England-based Vodafone Group Plc, paid $8.95 a month for data.

`No One Cares'

Sprint's previous advertising, including its recent ``Power Up'' campaign, didn't resonate with consumers because the company hasn't been able to define what makes its service different, analysts including Soleil Securities' Todd Rethemeier said.

``Verizon and Cingular have told us for years that they have the best network,'' he said. ``Sprint has wasted a lot of money over the last few years telling us how fast their data network is. No one cares how fast their data network is.''

AT&T's ``fewest dropped calls'' campaign, which plays upon the way silence on the other end of the phone line can produce anxiety, helped the company claim a special characteristic that consumers understand, said Wendy Clark, its vice president of advertising.

``If your phone doesn't function where you want it to and doesn't work, it really doesn't matter how much else it does,'' she said.

Sprint's new ads don't ignore network quality. In 26 U.S. cities, billboards will advertise the company's investment in local coverage.

The TV ads use a special effect that shows images drawn with what appears to be beams of light, a metaphor for the speed of Sprint's network. In one ad, an announcer compares a Sprint phone to a ``magic screen'' that holds favorite songs, pictures and stories, delivered at ``SprintSpeed.''

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

Last Updated: June 27, 2007 16:06 EDT