Cingular Wireless L.L.C. reported strong second-quarter results after more than a year of sluggish growth highlighted by a 50-percent increase in customer additions and a significant drop in customer churn compared with the second quarter of 2002.
The nation’s second-largest wireless carrier said it added 540,000 net customers during the second quarter of this year compared with 353,000 net customer additions last year and analysts expectations of approximately 250,000 net customer additions. Cingular reported 189,000 net subscriber additions during the first quarter of this year following two quarters of subscriber losses at the end of last year.
Cingular’s parent company BellSouth Corp. noted that 399,000 net customer additions during the second quarter of this year were postpaid subscribers.
Bolstering the carrier’s strong subscriber growth was a reduction in customer churn from 2.7 percent during the second quarter of last year to 2.5 percent this year. Cingular also reported a 12-percent increase in minutes of use during the quarter from 398 minutes per month during the second quarter of last year to 445 minutes per month this year, but relatively flat subscriber revenue of $48.87 per month.
Total operating revenue increased slightly from $3.7 billion during the second quarter of 2002 to $3.8 billion this year, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased more than 7 percent from $1.2 billion last year to $1.3 billion this year.
The carrier added that its GSM/GPRS network overlay plans covered 66 percent of its network at the end of the second quarter, and it expects to achieve more than 90-percent coverage by the end of this year.
