OVERLAND PARK, Kan.-Sprint PCS reported 250,000 net customer additions during the final three months of 2002, meeting analysts estimates and reversing the loss of more than 100,000 customers during the previous quarter. The quarterly net additions were well short of the more than 1.1 million customers Sprint PCS added during the fourth quarter of 2001.
The carrier posted 3.5 percent customer churn for the quarter, which was below the 3.8 percent reported during the third quarter of 2002, but ahead of the 3 percent the carrier reported for the fourth quarter of 2001. Full year customer churn also increased from 2.6 percent in 2001 to 3.3 percent last year.
Average revenue per user increased slightly from $60.56 during the fourth quarter of 2001 to just more than $62 last year, while the cost per gross addition increased from $315 during the fourth quarter of 2001 to $370 last year, which Sprint PCS attributed to lower gross customer additions.
Sprint PCS also said it had signed up more than 600,000 customers to its PCS Vision service.
Sprint PCS posted $3.1 billion in net operating revenues for the fourth quarter compared with $2.8 billion during the fourth quarter of 2001, and $12.1 billion for all of 2002 compared with $9.7 billion in 2001.
Net losses applicable to common shareholders dropped from $332 million during the final quarter of 2001, a loss of 33 cents per share, to $259 million last year, a loss of 25 cents per share. For the year, net losses also fell from $1.3 billion in 2001, a loss of $1.28 per share, to a loss of $592 million last year, a loss of 58 cents per share.
