SAN ANTONIO, Texas-SBC Communications Inc. added 112,000 wireless subscribers during this year’s first quarter-and 919,000 during the past 12 months-bringing its total number of domestic wireless subscribers to 5.6 million.
Subscriber growth during the quarter was driven by SBC’s personal communications services offering in California and Nevada, which ended the first three months of 1998 with 420,000 subscribers, the company said. Additionally, customer acquisition cost containment resulted in better wireless margins than last year, SBC said.
SBC reported $6.42 billion in operating revenues for the first quarter of 1998, a 7.6-percent increase compared with $5.97 billion for the corresponding quarter of 1997. Earnings increased 18.9 percent to $912 million, from a normalized $767 million in the same quarter last year. The company reported a 16.7-percent increase in diluted earnings per share, to 49 cents, from a normalized 42 cents for the year-earlier quarter.
On the international front, a consortium of Swiss power utilities, Swiss Reinsurance and SBC was awarded one of two wireless licenses in Switzerland. SBC said the group plans to launch wireless service there within six months.
In Taiwan, a consortium that includes SBC began offering cellular service in January; and SBC said customer response there exceeded its expectations. SBC’s investments in Telkom South Africa and Telmex in Mexico continue to be solid earnings contributors, the company said.
