Ntelos surges on solid Q1 gains

Ntelos Holding Corp.’s net wireless customer additions in the first quarter were more than double what the carrier reported during the same quarter a year ago, and the firm also posted an all-time low for its postpaid churn rate.
The telecom provider, which operates primarily in the south and Midwest, has a wholesale agreement with Sprint Nextel Corp., but is not considered an affiliate. The company sells both wireline and wireless services.
Ntelos gained nearly 16,000 net new wireless customers during the first quarter of 2007, up from around 7,600 during the same quarter of the previous year. The company has a wireless customer base of around 383,000.
Wireless subscriber revenues, meanwhile, grew 14% year-over-year. Ntelos said that postpaid customers make up 71% of its customer base, and its total churn rate checks in at 2.8%. The company also recorded its lowest-ever postpaid subscriber churn at 1.9%.
Ntelos’ average revenue per user for the first quarter was $55.48, up from $53.74 in the year-ago period. The company said that the increase was “attributable to continued growth in data services, data packages and higher-priced product offerings.” Ntelos reported that $3.44 of total ARPU came from data services, an increase of 32% from the first quarter of 2006. Postpaid data ARPU was $3.82, up from $2.88 in 2006’s first quarter.
The carrier’s stock was up more than 12% on the news to around $22.89 per share.