EDINBURG, Va.-Shenandoah Telecommunications Co. cut its churn rate in the fourth quarter of 2005 and increased its net retail customers by 6,515 subscribers, a jump of nearly 43 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2004. The company’s wholesale customer adds for 2005 dropped by more than 20 percent compared with 2004.
Shentel, one of the few Sprint Nextel Corp. CDMA affiliates that have not been acquired by the carrier, released its customer figures for the fourth quarter and full year. However, the carrier will not disclose its 2005 earnings until Feb. 22.
Shentel said it added 20,362 net retail customers in 2005, which was a 16.5 percent increase compared with its 2004 net customer additions. Shentel ended 2005 with 122,975 retail customers. While the operator’s annual retail churn rate was steady at 2 percent, it did cut fourth quarter churn from 2.2 percent in 2004 to 1.9 percent in 2005.
In terms of wholesale customers, the company said it added 11,389 subscribers for the year, down 23 percent from the 14,479 wholesale customers it gained during 2004. Shentel’s fourth quarter reflected a particularly large decrease in wholesale customer net additions, down 37 percent from the 7,734 wholesale subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2004. As of year’s end, Shentel said it had 38,726 wholesale customers on its network.
