Rural Cellular Corp. reigned supreme during the first quarter of this year, according to Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown’s recent metric ranking of 22 U.S. wireless operators. The report ranked each operator on five metrics included in their first-quarter financial results, including penetration gain, average revenue per user, churn, cost of acquisition and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization per subscriber.
In addition to taking the top spot in the rankings, rural operators occupied the next four positions, with Triton PCS, the winner of the fourth-quarter 2000 rankings, leading personal communications services providers in sixth place.
While not winning any one category, Rural Cellular finished consistently in totaling 29 points, including a seventh-place ranking in subscriber growth, 13th place in ARPU, fourth in churn, second in cost of acquisition and third in EBITDA/subscriber.
Western Wireless scored a strong second place in the rankings with 36 points, helped by a first-place showing in EBITDA/subscriber, at $28.39 per month, and no ranking lower than ninth place. Following Western Wireless was U.S. Cellular Corp. with 39 points, Price Communications with 40 points, including a first place in cost of acquisition, and Dobson Communications with 43 points.
The top PCS carriers included Triton’s sixth-place finish with 47 points, Sprint PCS in seventh with 51 points and Airgate PCS in eighth with 52 points, including a first-place ranking in penetration gain.
The bottom five in the rankings included Microcell with 68 points, Verizon Wireless with 70 points, TeleCorp PCS and VoiceStream Wireless Corp. with 80 points and Sprint PCS affiliate Ubiquitel in 22nd with 84 points, even though the carrier had the highest ARPU number in the rankings.
Other notables in the rankings included Alltel Corp. tied in eighth place with 52 points, Cingular Wireless in ninth place with 53 points, Nextel Communications Inc. in 12th place with 58 points and AT&T Wireless in 13th place with 60 points. Nextel Partners Inc., which finished in 16th position with 66 points, placed first in the customer churn ranking.
