WEST POINT, Ga.-Powertel Inc. added approximately 25,000 net personal communications services subscribers during the second quarter to close the first six months of 1998 with about 181,000 total subscribers.
Average revenue per PCS unit decreased from $57.23 in the first quarter to $56.11. Overall monthly PCS churn during the second quarter was 4.3 percent.
Powertel said delinquent accounts are driving churn, and it expects tighter credit policies, improved collection efforts, prepaid service and new fraud systems, fraud investigation and prosecution initiatives to reduce churn.
Second-quarter net loss was $57.8 million, or $2.15 per share-about the same as the previous quarter’s net loss of $57.7 million, or $2.14 per share-but nearly five times less than net income of $12.1 million, or 45 cents per share, for the same period last year.
Revenues grew 141 percent, from $8.3 million during the second quarter last year to $20 million this year. At the six-month mark, Powertel has a net loss of $70.23 million on revenues of $77.5 million, compared with a net loss of $47.8 million on revenues of $35.7 million halfway through last year.
