Hesse said his 2012 salary would be cut to repay about $346,000 in incentive pay that he has already received and forfeit additional amounts that he was eligible to receive under his 2011 and 2012 incentive plans.

"These voluntary actions regarding my personal compensation, which total $3,250,830, will eliminate any benefit for me to the discretionary adjustment the compensation committee made earlier this year," Hesse said in a letter to the company's human resources department.

The CEO said his actions would set his 2012 incentive compensation target opportunities back to 2010 levels.

Sprint's massive $15 billion bet on selling Apple's iPhones has not gone too well with investors, disappointed that the high subsidies on the device had pushed up costs at the No. 3 U.S. operator, even as it added more subscribers.

Sprint, which started taking iPhone orders on October 7, pays Apple a subsidy that is 40 percent higher, or $200 more per device, than what it pays for other phones.

(Reporting by Siddharth Cavale in Bangalore; Editing by Bernard Orr)

• A Permanent Economic Emergency