Western Wireless Corp. said it added 10,900 domestic subscribers during the second quarter of this year compared with 15,000 subscribers added during the second quarter of 2003. The rural carrier ended the first half of this year with more than 1.3 million total customers.
Customer churn remained steady year-over-year at 2.4 percent, though Western Wireless noted an expected increase in customer churn from 2.1 percent during the first quarter of this year affected its net subscriber additions during the second quarter.
Average revenue per user increased from $47.37 during the second quarter of 2003 to $50.22 this year and included $1.69 per subscriber attributed to the collection of federal and state universal service fund assessments that were not included in its second-quarter 2003 results. Cash cost per user also increased from $22.86 last year to $24.31 this year, including $1.68 attributed to the USF remittance, while the cost per gross addition increased from $395 during the second quarter of 2003 to $400 this year.
Domestic revenues increased more than 11 percent from $239.8 million last year to $267.8 million this year, despite a slight drop in roaming revenue from $54.7 million last year to $53.8 million this year. Western Wireless noted the drop in roaming revenue was attributed to a reduction in roaming rates as total roaming minutes increased 16 percent year-over-year. Domestic net income increased from $22.9 million last year to $41.3 million this year.
Western Wireless’ total revenues, including its international operations, increased nearly 30 percent from $359.2 million during the second quarter of 2003 to $465.5 million this year. The carrier’s consolidated net income increased slightly from $40.1 million last year to $41 million this year, while net income per diluted share dropped from 49 cents last year to 42 cents this year.
Western Wireless also reported that at the end of the second quarter more than 75 percent of its service area had access to CDMA services, and it plans to add GSM/GPRS to more cell sites than the original 490 it originally planned to convert due to traffic demand.
