Regional wireless operator Centennial Communications Corp. said it added 6,600 domestic net customers during its first fiscal quarter of 2006, which ended Aug. 31. The number is more than triple the 1,900 customers the carrier added during the first quarter of 2005. Centennial ended the quarter with 592,600 total domestic subscribers.
Centennial reported strong growth in its Caribbean operations where it added 56,200 customers during the first quarter, which was nearly three times the 20,500 customers the carrier added last year. Centennial ended the quarter with 715,000 total Caribbean wireless customers and more than 1.3 million total customers.
Domestic churn dropped slightly from 2.6 percent during the first quarter of 2005 to 2.5 percent in 2006, while average revenue per user dropped from $52 last year to $49 this year. Centennial added that 46.2 percent of its domestic customer base was on its GSM network at the end of the quarter compared with 8.1 percent last year.
Customer churn in its Caribbean markets jumped from 3.6 percent during the first quarter of 2005 to 4 percent in 2006, which Centennial attributed to network issues in Puerto Rico where it was upgrading its legacy CDMA network to CDMA2000 1x EV-DO technology and vetting low-quality customers. ARPU also took a hit, dropping from $55 during the first quarter of 2005 to $46 in 2006.
Despite the drop in recurring customer revenues, domestic revenues increased 4.6 percent year-over-year from $103.1 million during the first quarter of 2005 to $107.8 million in 2006. The growth was helped by a 60-percent increase in roaming revenues that accounted for 20 percent of total revenues during the first quarter of 2006.
Caribbean wireless revenues increased 15.4 percent from $83 million during the first quarter of 2005 to $95.8 million in 2006. Combined with Centennial’s other operations in the Caribbean, the company’s consolidated revenues jumped 9.4 percent year-over-year from $216.8 million during the first quarter of 2005 to $237.2 million in 2006.
Net income also improved from $8.5 million during the first quarter of 2005, a return of 8 cents per share, to $14.7 million in 2006, a return of 14 cents per share.
Centennial’s stock was trading erratically early Thursday, but by late-morning was down 25 cents at $14.15 per share.
