Rural Cellular Corp. reported $127.1 million in total revenues during the second quarter of 2003 compared with $118.9 million the carrier posted during the same quarter last year. The increase was due to a $10.5 million jump in service revenue, which made up for slight drops in both roaming and equipment revenue compared with last year’s results.
Rural Cellular added it recognized $2.5 million in Eligible Telecommunications Carrier support payments from Alabama, Mississippi and Washington during the second quarter of 2003 and recently received ETC certification in Vermont and Maine.
Net income also increased from a loss of $3.6 million last year, a loss of 30 cents per share, to a return of $382,000 this year, or 3 cents per share.
The carrier said it added 10,309 net customer additions during the second quarter of 2003, compared with 16,020 subscribers Rural Cellular added during the second quarter of 2002. The carrier said it ended the recently completed second quarter with 739,015 total subscribers.
Postpaid customer churn dropped from 1.5 percent last year to 1.6 percent this year while local average revenue per user increased from $41 last year to $44 this year.
