NEW YORK-Omnipoint Corp., whose operating company Omnipoint Communications Inc. is New York City’s first personal communications services provider, reported revenues for the first time in the first quarter and losses greater than those for the first quarter a year earlier.
The results reflected planned expenses associated with the launch of PCS in the New York City and Philadelphia metropolitan areas and research and development expenses for the parent company’s technology division.
Revenue for the first quarter, which ended March 31, totaled $7.6 million, compared with no revenue during first quarter 1996. The company reported a loss of $52.4 million, or $1.02 per share of common stock, vs. a loss of $15.9 million, or 39 cents per common share during the same period in 1996.
“This compares favorably with (expectations of) a mien loss of $1.22 per share by sell side (securities) analysts,” said Bradley Sparks, chief financial officer of Alexandria, Va.-based Omnipoint Corp., in a teleconference May 7. The company has $1.34 billion in assets, “up slightly from the end of 1996,” he said.
These assets include $426.3 million in cash on hand, comprising for the most part the proceeds of its initial and secondary stock offerings and a public high-yield debt offering, as well as the ability to borrow an additional $183.8 million from equipment vendors, Sparks said.
Within New York City, George Schmitt, president of Omnipoint Communications, said the city Landmarks Commission recently approved cell sites that will permit coverage in Manhattan of the Upper East Side and Central Park within a few weeks. Distribution outlets in the New York metropolitan area now total 130. Omnipoint also has begun offering prepaid calling plans that treat these customers very much the same as credit-card customers in terms of rates, he said.
Resort communities on Long Island and the New Jersey shore should have adequate coverage by the Fourth of July. The greater Philadelphia area, including Atlantic City, should be operating commercially by Labor Day.
In the greater Boston and Miami metropolitan areas, Schmitt said, “we are working with four companies to determine who will be our suppliers, based on pricing and financing, and expect to make an announcement within a few weeks.”
Sites in these areas have been acquired and actively engineered, he said, so that these systems are expected to go into commercial operation by spring of 1998.
With respect to Omnipoint’s D-, E- and F-block licenses, Douglas Smith, president of the parent company, said, “we may be able to announce by the end of this year some of the things we’ll be doing with others who will be financing the buildout of a number of the many licenses we acquired.”
During the Federal Communications Commission D-, E-, and F-block auction, which ended Jan. 14, Omnipoint won 109 PCS licenses. Its coverage area encompasses a population of 96.5 million.
