LUBBOCK, Texas-Sprint Nextel Corp. wireless affiliate Alamosa Holdings Inc. said it added 33,000 customers during the third quarter, including 28,000 subscribers through its Alamosa operations and 5,000 customers through the AirGate PCS operations that Alamosa acquired earlier this year. The customer growth was well below the 52,000 combined subscribers added during the second quarter and short of analysts’ estimates of between 40,000 and 45,000 net customer additions.
Alamosa’s management attributed the shortfall to “external factors” and parent-company Sprint Nextel’s re-branding efforts during the quarter.
“The quarter was challenging due to lower consumer confidence due to higher energy prices and the local and national impacts of hurricane season along with competitive positioning in the wireless sector in advance of the merger and launch of the new brand by Sprint Nextel during August and September,” said David Sharbutt, chairman and chief executive officer of Alamosa.
The operational challenges also impacted customer churn, which increased sequentially from 2.1 percent during the second quarter to 2.5 percent during the third quarter.
