Cingular Wireless L.L.C., which is reported to have made a $30 billion offer to acquire AT&T Wireless Services Inc., said it added 642,000 subscribers during the fourth quarter of last year, which was in line with analysts estimates and well ahead of the 121,000 customers the carrier lost during the fourth quarter of 2002. For the year, Cingular said it added 2.1 million subscribers, compared with 359,000 customer additions during 2002, ending 2003 with just more than 24 million subscribers.
Cingular also reported customer churn increased slightly from 2.7 percent during the fourth quarter of 2002 to 2.8 percent in 2003, though full-year churn fell from 2.8 percent in 2002 to 2.7 percent last year. Average revenue per user dropped more than 5 percent from $51.84 during the fourth quarter of 2002 to $49.03 in 2003, which some analysts attributed to Cingular’s $10-per-month family share offer, dragging down overall ARPU.
Cingular’s management noted local number portability requests were lower than expected during the last half of the fourth quarter and were not a significant factor in results.
Total revenues increased more than 5 percent during the fourth quarter from $3.7 billion in 2002 to $3.9 billion in 2003, while full-year revenues increased nearly 4 percent from $14.9 billion in 2002 to $15.5 billion last year. Despite the increase in revenues, Cingular posted a 36-percent drop in operating income from $516 million during the fourth quarter of 2002 to $329 million last year and more than a 9-percent full-year drop from $2.5 billion in 2002 to $2.3 billion in 2003.
