CHICAGO—U.S. Cellular Corp. posted $478.4 million in operating revenue for the first quarter of 2002, a 9-percent increase compared with the $439.7 million reported last year. Net income increased more than 44 percent during the same time frame from $30.3 million, a return of 39 cents per share, to $43.8 million, a return of 51 cents per share.
Customer additions from the quarter dropped from 114,000 last year to 31,000 this year. U.S. Cellular noted the Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing by one of its nationally based customers resulted in 13,000 unit deactivations for the quarter. The carrier also reported adding an additional 12,000 customers from personal communications services license acquisitions during the quarter.
Average revenue per user fell from $44.65 during the first quarter of last year to $44.14 this year, with customer churn rising from 1.7 percent to 1.9 percent.
