SAN ANTONIO-While it added more than 1 million wireless subscribers during 1997, SBC Communications Inc. reported slight increases in revenue and decreases in net income during the fourth quarter and year ended Dec. 31.
Fiscal 1997 net income dropped 55 percent from $3.3 billion in 1996 to $1.5 billion in 1997. Fourth-quarter net income totaled $588 million, a decrease of 18.4 percent compared with net income of $721 million in the corresponding quarter. Net income results include special charges related to the merger with Pacific Telesis, costs of local number portability and pension settlements, and gains related to the sale of Bellcore, said SBC.
Operating revenues grew 6 percent to $24.9 billion in 1997, up from $23.4 billion in 1996. Fourth-quarter operating revenues increased 6.9 percent from $6.2 billion in 1996 to $6.6 billion in 1997.
SBC increased its subscriber base by 24 percent with more than 1 million new wireless subscribers, some 340,000 of whom signed up for the company’s personal communications services in California and Nevada. The other 670,000 subscribers were added in traditional Southwestern Bell and Cellular One markets, bringing the company’s total number of wireless customers in those markets to nearly 5.2 million at the end of the year.
