A slew of first-quarter earnings announced last week reflected a generally upbeat quarter for regional wireless carriers.
U.S. Cellular Corp. relieved some pressure, having finally released operating results from the third quarter of 2005 and financial restatements dating back to 2000.
U.S. Cellular reported that it activated 76,000 new customers during the third quarter of last year and ended the period 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 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 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 generated in the prior year’s third quarter. 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 an extension from the American Stock Exchange until June 30. 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 this year.
Rural Cellular Corp. unveiled preliminary first-quarter figures reflecting a large increase in roaming revenue, but the company said it lost about 7,800 subscribers during the first three months of the year.
RCC’s roaming revenue came in at nearly $31 million, which the company said was due to a 92-percent increase in outcollect roaming minutes. Combined service and roaming revenue got an 11-percent boost to $126.8 million compared with the same period last year. Universal Service Fund payments to the company totaled $11.3 million last quarter.
“The quarter’s roaming revenue reflects the continuing success of our new technology networks,” said Richard Ekstrand, RCC’s president and chief executive officer. “As we enter the spring and summer months of 2006, we anticipate significant progress in our new technology handset transition and continued improvement in retention.”
RCC recently upgraded its legacy TDMA network with GSM/GPRS and CDMA technology.
Excluding roaming, ARPU totaled $51, up from $47 in the first quarter of 2005. RCC’s postpaid churn rate was at 2.6 percent, and it ended the quarter with about 698,000 customers.
The carrier plans to release its full operating and financial results for the first quarter May 8.
Sprint Nextel Corp. affiliate iPCS Inc. reported that it surpassed the half-a-million subscriber mark during the first quarter, adding 13,000 customers to its network.
The company, which is one of four remaining independent Sprint Nextel affiliates, said that it now has 508,300 subscribers. iPCS posted average monthly churn for the quarter of 2.6 percent, unchanged from the previous quarter.
Nextel Partners Inc. reported a strong first quarter, which will very likely be its last quarter of independent reporting since its acquisition by Sprint Nextel Corp. is expected to close in the second quarter.
Nextel Partners added nearly 103,000 new customers in the first quarter, and the company’s total revenues soared by 24 percent from the same period last year to just shy of $500 million. Partners reported ARPU of $66, which was down about $1 from the first quarter of 2005.
Nextel Partners added 84 cell sites to its network in the quarter, and also opened five new company-owned stores. The new stores give Partners a total of 140 stores.
Nextel Partners ended the quarter with 2.12 million customers. Once Sprint Nextel acquires Partners, the national carrier will have about 51 million customers.
