ALBANY, N.Y.-Sprint Corp. wireless affiliate IWO Holdings Inc., which emerged from bankruptcy protection in early June, said it lost 5,485 customers during the second quarter, which the carrier attributed to the discontinuation of its Chat-Pak prepaid program that it inherited from former parent company and fellow Sprint affiliate US Unwired Inc. The carrier added 5,963 customers during the second quarter of 2004.
IWO said it ended the first half of the year with 237,172 total customers, which included 104,912 reseller subscribers.
Reflecting the prepaid rate changes, IWO’s customer churn jumped from 2.5 percent during the second quarter of 2004 to 4.3 percent this year. IWO noted that postpaid churn dropped from 2.4 percent in 2004 to 2.3 percent this year.
IWO’s average revenue per user dropped 4.5 percent from $52.52 during the second quarter of 2004 to $50.17 this year, while its cost per gross addition plunged 9.5 percent from $421 in 2004 to $381 this year.
Total revenues increased 11 percent year-over-year from $46.5 million during the second quarter of 2004 to $51.6 million this year. Net losses dipped slightly from a loss of $8.9 million during the second quarter of 2004 to a loss of $8.7 million this year.
IWO’s stock was trading down 20 cents per share early Thursday at $39.05 per share.
