Can Android help Sprint?

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Poor Sprint Nextel. The third-largest U.S. wireless company lost a million customers in the second quarter while AT&T and Verizon gained more than a million each. Then Sprint received low marks yet again in Consumer Reports’ annual wireless survey. Then Moody’s downgraded Sprint’s debt rating to junk status.

But Sprint isn’t ready to quit. The company said today that it is ready to offer a phone based on Google’s Android operating system -- within a year. Never mind that back in October, Chief Executive Dan Hesse said that Android was not good enough for Sprint. Now, Sprint needs the Android and is apparently working with developers to create a new phone.

‘We can, when the timing’s right, pull the trigger,’ Sprint’s vice president of products and devices, Kevin Packingham, told the Associated Press.

Sprint would be the largest carrier to run Android; currently it is available only on T-Mobile’s G1. Although Sprint shares fell almost 5% today, to $2.42, analysts say an Android phone could help Sprint win back customers with yet another iPhone killer. For consumers, there’s another reason to be optimistic: Maybe Sprint will put out some new commercials, replacing those ubiquitous black and white ones featuring its CEO (above).

-- Alana Semuels