Leap Wireless International Inc., which announced last week that it expects to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection within the next several weeks, reported $205.7 million in total revenues during the second quarter of this year compared with $185.6 million in revenues in the second quarter of 2003. For the first half of the year, total revenues increased from $369.5 million in 2003 to $412.5 million this year.
Net losses also improved from a loss of $243.5 million during the second quarter of 2003, a loss of $4.16 per share, to a loss of $18.3 million this year, a loss of 31 cents per share. Second-quarter 2003 losses included a $181 million impairment charge relating to Leap’s wireless licenses and network assets.
Net customer additions increased from a loss of 53,770 subscribers during the second quarter of 2003 to a gain of 9,133 customers this year, which pushed Leap’s total customer base to 1.547 million subscribers. Reinforcing Leap’s strong turnaround in customer growth was a 17.8-percent increase in gross subscriber additions and a significant drop in customer churn from 4.6 percent last year to 3.7 percent this year.
Average revenue per user improved from $36.48 during the second quarter of 2003 to $37.28 this year, while cost per gross addition dropped from $194 last year to $141 this year and the cash cost per user decreased from $23.55 to $18.47.
“I believe that the results we are reporting today clearly illustrate that we have delivered on our commitments by maintaining a strict focus on the basics and continuing to execute well on a reasonable growth strategy,” said Bill Freeman, chief executive officer of Leap.
