CHICAGO-Regional wireless operator U.S. Cellular Corp. posted 182,000 net customer additions during the first quarter of this year, which fell short of the 196,000 customers the carrier added during the first quarter of last year, but was ahead of analysts’ estimates. U.S. Cellular noted that its customer growth included 59,000 reseller customer activations during the first quarter of this year compared with 52,000 resell net additions last year.
U.S. Cellular ended the first quarter of this year with more than 5.1 million total customers.
The subscriber growth shortfall was attributed to an increase in postpaid customer churn from 1.3 percent during the first quarter of 2004 to 1.5 percent this year, which offset a 5.8-percent increase in direct gross subscriber activations from 345,000 customers in 2004 to 365,000 customers this year.
Average revenue per user also dropped nearly $2 from $46.16 during the first quarter of 2004 to $44.28 this year. The decrease in part was due to a 38-percent decrease in inbound roaming revenue per customer from $3.17 in 2004 to $1.98 this year that offset an increase in long-distance/other revenue per unit from $2.73 in 2004 to $3.26 this year. U.S. Cellular noted that data revenues increased from $11 million during the first quarter of 2004 to $29 million this year, which analysts said contributed around $2 in ARPU this year.
Despite the ARPU shortfall, U.S. Cellular’s total revenues increased 7.7 percent from $657.7 million during the first quarter of 2004 to $708.4 million this year. The growth was lead by an 8-percent jump in service revenues from $619.4 million in 2004 to $668.8 million this year.
Net income jumped 83 percent from $9.2 million during the first quarter of 2004, or 11 cents per share, to $16.9 million this year, or 19 cents per share.
