Alltel Corp. posted $1.2 billion in wireless revenues for the fourth quarter of 2003, which was a 6-percent improvement compared with the $1.1 billion the company reported for the fourth quarter of 2002. For the year, wireless revenues increased more than 14 percent from $4.2 billion in 2002 to $4.7 billion last year.
Helping to drive the increased quarterly revenues was a 124-percent improvement in net customer additions from 42,669 subscribers during the fourth quarter of 2002 to 95,374 customers during the fourth quarter of 2003. Alltel noted fourth quarter 2003 internally generated customer growth was its best in two years.
Customer growth slowed year over year from 918,634 subscribers in 2002 to 421,827 last year, though Alltel noted a majority of the 2002 growth was due to its acquisition of CenturyTel Inc.’s wireless operations. Alltel ended 2003 with just more than 7.8 million wireless subscribers.
Fourth quarter customer churn dropped from 2.76 percent in 2002 to 2.53 percent last year, while full-year customer churn increased slightly from 2.5 percent in 2002 to 2.59 percent last year.
Alltel also reported slight increases in average revenue per user from $46.98 during the fourth quarter of 2002 to $47.26 during the fourth quarter of 2003 and from $46.97 during all of 2002 to $47.51 last year.
Alltel also announced changes to its organizational structure that will result in between 400 and 600 job cuts at regional and corporate levels and result in a one-time per-tax charge of about $15 million during the first quarter. The company noted the changes will result in a savings of $20 million for the full year and are expected to be in place by late February.
