NEW YORK (AP) — Subscriber trends are turning south again for Sprint Nextel as it struggles to compete with Verizon Wireless, the juggernaut of the industry.

The country’s No. 3 wireless carrier on Thursday said it lost overall subscribers for the first time in two and a half years in the third quarter, as customers gave up on the moribund Nextel network and the company failed to sign up enough of them on the Sprint network.