ALEXANDRIA, Minn.—Rural Cellular Corp. slowed its losses in the fourth quarter, although the company still posted a net loss of $64 million for 2005, or $5.62 per share. However, the company added customers for the first time in six quarters.
The carrier continued to lose customers compared to 2004, when it ended the year with 730,000 total customers; RCC finished out 2005 with 706,000 postpaid, prepaid and wholesale customers, and said that it added 1,000 customers in the fourth quarter. While losing retail postpaid and prepaid customers, RCC increased its wholesale customers in 2005 by more than 15,000.
The company’s roaming revenue jumped by 53 percent to $36.3 million, and 90 percent of the roaming minutes during the fourth quarter were carried on RCC’s GSM and CDMA networks, compared to 47 percent a year ago. Service revenue increased 3 percent to $387.8 million for the year, though it decreased slightly in the fourth quarter.
RCC’s average revenue per user hit $50 for the year, up from $46; for the fourth quarter of 2005, ARPU registered at $51, compared with $48 in the same quarter of 2004. Customer churn, meanwhile, was at 2.7 percent for the quarter and year, compared with 2.4 percent for the same quarter in 2004 and 2.1 percent for the year 2004.
