CHICAGO—U.S. Cellular Corp. can breathe a sign of relief, having finally released its operating results from the third quarter of 2005 and the financial restatements dating back to 2000, which the carrier has been working on since November. The company said it expects to file the results with the Securities and Exchange Commission later today.
U.S. Cellular reported that it activated 76,000 net new customers during the third quarter of last year and ended the quarter with 5.3 million customers, up 10 percent from 2004’s third quarter. The regional operator saw its average revenue per user slide, however, from $47.88 in the third quarter of 2004 to $46.19 in last year’s third quarter—a decrease of 3.5 percent.
U.S. Cellular’s postpaid churn stood at 1.5 percent for the third quarter and about 95 percent of its customers’ minutes were on the company’s network.
The carrier’s third-quarter 2005 service revenues of $729.5 million were up 6.8 percent from the restated $683.3 million it received in the prior year’s third quarter. Total operating revenues were up 7.5 percent to $795.5 million.
The regional operator has not yet filed year-end results for 2005 or its first-quarter 2006 results, and has received an extension from the American Stock Exchange that gives the company until June 30 to do so. The company noted that its filings “include disclosure of certain material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting and U.S. Cellular’s plans to remediate those weaknesses.”
The carrier added that its new operations in St. Louis, launched last year, are “off to a good start” with primarily postpaid customers being added in that market. U.S. Cellular said that it “will not launch any significant new markets in 2006,” instead choosing to focus on building up its customer base in St. Louis and other recently launched markets.
U.S. Cellular shares were up about 1.4 percent in late morning trading in response to the results’ release.
