Dobson Communications Corp. posted an 81-percent increase in total revenues during the first quarter from $128.9 million last year to $233.8 million this year, boosted by the full ownership of its previous American Cellular Corp. joint venture with AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and a pair of market swaps with AWS and Cingular Wireless L.L.C. Excluding its American Cellular operations, Dobson Cellular Systems posted a 26-percent year-over-year increase in service revenues from $82.8 million last year to $104.3 million this year.
Net income dropped from $18.1 million during the first quarter of 2003, a return of 20 cents per share, to a loss of $16.5 million this year, a loss of 12 cents per share. Dobson noted the first-quarter 2004 net loss included $8.6 million in dividends on redeemable preferred stock and $1.9 million in dividends on its series F convertible preferred stock, which were partially offset by a $5.7 million gain on extinguishment of debt and a $4 million tax benefit.
Dobson previously reported that net customer additions dropped from 11,800 during the first quarter of 2003 to a loss of 5,400 customers this year, which the carrier attributed to a higher level of postpaid deactivations and an increase in postpaid customer churn from 1.5 percent last year to 1.9 percent this year. Average revenue per user also dipped from $42 last year to $41 this year.
