Regional wireless provider Dobson Communications Corp. provided updated second-quarter operating trends in connection with its annual shareholders’ meeting, showing that gross subscriber additions through last month continued to be slower than expected. And postpaid customer churn appeared to be coming in at below the company’s target of 2 percent for the year.
Dobson reported a net loss of customers during the first quarter of this year, which the carrier attributed to a higher level of postpaid deactivations and postpaid customer churn of 1.9 percent.
Dobson also noted the number of GSM customers increased from 11,800 subscribers at the end of the first quarter and 40,300 customers at the end of April to approximately 93,000 GSM subscribers June 14. The carrier also said it expects second-quarter average revenue per user to be slightly higher than the $41 Dobson reported for the first quarter of this year, though lower than the $43 that it reported for the second quarter of 2003.
In addition, Dobson’s management said roaming minutes of use during the second quarter appear to be in line or slightly ahead of results from the second quarter of last year and ahead of previous forecasts. Dobson noted during the first quarter that roaming minutes of use were flat year over year, and Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and AT&T Wireless Services Inc. accounted for 90 percent of the carrier’s total roaming traffic.
Dobson’s stock was trading marginally higher early Tuesday at $3.05 per share.
