SAN FRANCISCO-AirTouch Communications Inc. announced its net income for the fourth quarter, ended Dec. 31, more than tripled to $11 million, increasing 261 percent when compared with the $3 million reported Dec. 31, 1994. The company’s net income for the year ended Dec. 31, 1995, was $131.9 million, or 27 cents per share, a 35 percent increase from $98.1 million, or 20 cents per share, for 1994.
“Our strong performance for the quarter and the year shows that increasingly more people around the world are demanding wireless services,” said Sam Ginn, chairman and chief executive officer of AirTouch. “In the U.S., our cellular and paging operations achieved record growth while maintaining strong margins.”
In 1995, AirTouch said its worldwide cellular subscribers grew by more than 1 million, or 57 percent, to more than 3 million. The figure includes 136,000 customers acquired in the fourth quarter through ownership increases in joint ventures, AirTouch said.
CommNet Cellular adds record users
ENGLEWOOD, Colo.-CommNet Cellular Inc. added a record 17,629 new customers during its first fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31, bringing its total subscribers to 168,456.
“By adding a record number of new customers during the December quarter and posting a 47 percent increase year over year, we quite emphatically refuted the equipment vendor claims of slowing subscriber additions in the cellular arena,” said Arnold Pohs, the company’s chairman, president and chief executive officer.
The company said its net loss for the first fiscal quarter was reduced by 48 percent to $3.4 million, or 25 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $6.4 million, or 55 cents per share, the previous year.
CommNet also announced the introduction of a new customer satisfaction and pricing program that it launched Feb. 1. The program is intended to simplify how wireless services are offered and used by the consumer, in conjunction with packaging equipment, a fixed number of airtime minutes and long distance within one area code for one monthly fee.
Ericsson’s increase credited to bookings
STOCKHOLM, Sweden-L.M. Ericsson showed a pre-tax income of $1.1 billion for the year ended Dec. 31, a 36 percent increase from the previous year’s $845 million figure. Income per share after actual and deferred taxes and after full conversion and split, was 90 cents per share for 1995, up 34 percent from 67 cents per share in 1994.
For the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, pre-tax income rose 32 percent to $422 million compared with $319 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 1994.
Consolidated net sales at year-end 1995 rose 20 percent to $14.9 billion, compared with $12.4 billion the previous year.
Ericsson said the increases are mainly due to the mobile communications operations that continue to develop. “Fiscal 1995 was a favorable year for Ericsson with a strong development of results and a strengthened balance sheet,” said Lars Ramqvist, president and chief executive officer of Ericsson. “At the close of the fourth quarter, we could note that order bookings continued to rise for the 17th consecutive quarter. In the fourth quarter alone, order bookings were up 10 percent and net sales 14 percent.”
Metrocall loss due to its debt refinancing
ALEXANDRIA, Va.-Metrocall Inc. reported a net loss, before an extra charge of $4.4 million attributable to debt refinancing, of $15.7 million, or $1.34 per share, for the year ended Dec. 31. This compares with a net loss, before an extra charge of $1.3 million, of $1.1 million, or 14 cents per share, for the year ended Dec. 31, 1994.
Net loss for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 was $8.6 million, or 59 cents per share, before the charge of $4.4 million. Net loss for the fourth quarter the previous year was $2.8 million, or 27 cents per share.
Metrocall’s total subscribers increased to 944,013 at Dec. 31, from 755,546 at Dec. 31, 1994-an increase of about 25 percent for the year.
Metrocall said it executed a reorganization plan to upgrade its sales force and reduce corporate overhead in the fourth quarter.
InterCel reports $3M in net income for ’95
WEST POINT, Ga.-InterCel Inc.’s net income totaled $3 million, or 29 cents per share, for the year ended Dec. 31, compared with $1.9 million for 1994. The company reported a net income of $642,000, or 6 cents per share, for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with net income in fourth quarter 1994 of $471,000, or 5 cents per share.
InterCel attributes its increases in part to a 35 percent increase in cellular subscribers since last year.
