SAN FRANCISCO-AirTouch Communications Inc. posted $46.7 million, or 9 cents earnings per share, net income for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with $34.4 million, or 7 cents per share, for the third quarter 1994.
The company said proportionate international cellular subscribers soared 130 percent compared with third quarter 1994, reaching 635,000. AirTouch now serves about 2.5 million proportionate cellular customers worldwide.
“As we expand our operations in the coming months, we’ll strike a careful balance between growth and profitability,” said Sam Ginn, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Our strong financial performance during the quarter demonstrates our commitment to maintain our margins while building a sizable global customer base.”
Vanguard gains 26,000 subscribers in quarter
GREENSBORO, N.C.-In its eighth consecutive quarter of increased service revenues, Vanguard Cellular Systems Inc. produced a record $58.8 million in service revenues in its third quarter-47 percent higher than its service revenues of $40.1 million for third quarter 1994.
Vanguard’s net subscriber gain during the third quarter was 26,000. The gain was 24 percent higher than the 21,000 subscribers for the comparable period last year.
The company’s net income for the third quarter was $3.3 million, or 8 cents per share, compared with a 1994 third quarter net loss of $263,000, or 1 cent per share. Vanguard said the increase in earnings is attributed to growth in operating cash flow and operating income, which reached a record $13.5 million for the third quarter, offset by increased interest expense associated with borrowings used to finance the company’s cellular network expansion and acquisition activities.
PageNet records loss of 10 cents per share
DALLAS- Paging Network Inc. reported a third-quarter net loss of $10 million, or 10 cents per share, compared with a loss of $3.2 million,or 3 cents per share, in the third quarter 1994. The company said all per-share information reflects a two-for-one stock split of the company’s common stock Sept. 29.
However, PageNet said net revenues and pagers in service were at a record high for the three-month period ended Sept. 30. Net revenues for the third quarter were $145.5 million, a 35 percent increase compared with revenues of $108 million reported for third quarter 1994. The company had 6.2 million pagers in service on Sept. 30, compared with 4 million pagers Sept. 30, 1994-a 51 percent increase.
PageNet also reconfirmed the deployment schedule for its two-way InFLEXion network and its VoiceNow service, the first product to be offered on the network. The company said it expects to begin beta testing of the network in the first quarter of 1996 and anticipates commercial deployment to begin mid-year.
Paging firm reports loss of $6.4M in 3rd quarter
RIDGEFIELD PARK, N.J.-MobileMedia Corp. said its net loss for the third quarter ended Sept. 30 was $6.4 million, a loss of 20 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $10.5 million, or 45 cents per share, in the corresponding quarter of 1994.
On Aug. 31, the company purchased the assets comprising the paging and wireless messaging business of Dial Page Inc., adding approximately 370,000 units in the Southeastern United States to its subscriber base.
“The integration of Dial Page continues to go well,” said Greg Rorke, chief executive officer of MobileMedia. “Two weeks after completing the Dial Page acquisition, we transferred all credit and collections functions to our centralized operations center in Dallas, Texas. Customer service consolidations should be fully completed by mid-December, two months ahead of schedule.”
MobileMedia added approximately 470,000 net paging subscribers during the quarter for a total of about 2.2 million pagers in service as of Sept. 30. The growth total includes approximately 370,000 paging subscribers added in the Dial Page acquisition and nearly 100,000 units added through internal growth. This is a 59 percent increase compared with units-in-service on Sept. 30, 1994.
