Nextel Communications Inc. last week delivered strong first-quarter results and introduced Nextel Online Internet access.
Nextel said it added a company record 540,300 domestic digital customers and 93,700 proportionate international customers in the first quarter, ending the three-month period with about 5.6 million digital subscribers globally. The carrier’s domestic digital subscriber base reached about 5 million.
Revenue grew 63 percent to $1.08 billion, compared with $664 million generated in the first quarter of 1999. Net loss per share before one-time charges was 83 cents per share, a 50-percent improvement compared with the $1.66 per-share loss the previous year. Operating cash flow reached $228 million in the first quarter, compared with $35 million in first-quarter 1999. Average revenue per user was $72, while churn was about 2 percent for domestic customers.
Nextel said it expects to add more than 500,000 subscribers in the second quarter, though the company has stopped some of its marketing promotions that helped propel customer additions in the first quarter.
“For the fifth consecutive quarter, Nextel has attracted greater net additions while maintaining the highest subscriber quality in the industry,” said Steve Shindler, Nextel’s chief financial officer. “With more than $18 of domestic monthly cash flow per subscriber and an estimated $3,600 of lifetime revenue per subscriber, Nextel continues to set the pace in the emerging digital wireless industry. Nextel International is beginning to see the same type of improvements in Latin America that our domestic operations experienced over the last few years.”
Nextel also announced it will begin rolling out packet-based Nextel Online wireless Internet services in 43 markets. The service features flat-rate pricing and includes unlimited access to MSN Mobile and Nextel alliance Web sites. Plans begin at $15 in addition to a customer’s existing Nextel rate plan. Nextel said it has seeded the market with more than 1.9 million data-capable handsets, representing about 38 percent of the carrier’s customer base.
