Following a competitive first quarter that witnessed the wireless industry meeting modest customer addition expectations, moderating customer churn results and a drop in customer revenue, analysts and investors are hinting that the wireless industry should report slightly improved results during the recently completed second quarter.
Meanwhile, investors used the past three months to move back into the wireless space. Nearly all of the publicly traded wireless carriers saw their stock prices climb substantially during the period, with some operators witnessing a more than 400-percent improvement in their share prices.
Of the publicly traded nationwide operators, AT&T Wireless Services Inc.’s stock price shot up more than 25 percent during the second quarter, while Nextel Communications Inc. posted a 34-percent increase and Sprint PCS’ tracking stock jumped 34 percent from April 1 to June 30.
As analysts look at the second quarter, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA Inc., the country’s largest and smallest nationwide operators respectively, are again expected to lead the industry in customer growth. Analysts note Verizon Wireless continues to attract customers seeking a high-quality network, while T-Mobile USA attracts wireless subscribers looking for the best value.
Nextel again is expected to post steady quarterly customer growth, with analysts predicting the carrier will report about 450,000 net customer additions during the quarter. While those predicted results would be below the 471,000 subscribers the carrier added during the second quarter of 2002, they would put Nextel on pace to meet its full-year guidance of 1.7 million subscriber additions.
AT&T Wireless and Sprint PCS are both expected to report approximately 350,000 net customer additions during the second quarter, which would be a drop from the 417,000 customers AT&T Wireless added in the same quarter last year, but an improvement for Sprint PCS, which posted 308,000 additions in second-quarter ’02.
