	gte gte cites loss of sprint gte corp said the decline in its first quarter net income reflects a mln dlr loss from its pct share ownership of u s sprint s operations this loss is an increase from the mln dlrs loss reported on operations gte owned a year ago quarter and prior to entering a joint venture with united telecommunications ut in july under the joint venture each company owns pct of sprint earlier the company reported net income declined to mln dlrs from mln dlrs in the first quarter a year ago theodore brophy chairman of gte said we expect us sprint s losses to diminish later this year as customer traffic migrates to the new fiber optic network for long distance telecommunications the reason for the higher losses reflect lower prices as well as higher operating costs related in part to the fraudalent use of the network operating income of its telephone operations which account for pct of the total rose eight pct to mln dlrs revenues from telephone operations rose eight pct to billion dlrs reuter 
