T-Mobile USA Inc. reported $3.2 billion in revenues for the fourth quarter of last year, which was a 37-percent improvement compared with the $2.4 billion the carrier posted during the fourth quarter of 2003. Full-year revenues increased 40 percent from $8.4 billion in 2003 to $11.7 billion last year.
Boosting T-Mobile USA’s strong financial performance was its previously announced 1.019 million net customer additions during the fourth quarter of 2004, which was in line with fourth-quarter 2003 results, and an increase in average revenue per user from $53 during the fourth quarter of 2003 to $55 last year. T-Mobile USA’s management also noted that data services accounted for 6.6 percent of ARPU during the fourth quarter compared with 3.5 percent during the fourth quarter of 2003, with Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry devices a major factor in the year-over-year increase.
T-Mobile USA also reported an increase in its cash cost per user from $24 during the fourth quarter of 2003 to $28 last year, while the cost per gross addition inched up from $344 during the fourth quarter of 2003 to $345 last year.
Despite the booming revenues, net losses increased slightly from $307 million during the fourth quarter of 2003 to $329 million last year. Most of the loss was attributed to a $792 million charge during the fourth quarter of 2004 related to T-Mobile USA acquiring control of Cingular Wireless L.L.C.’s network assets in California and Nevada, related to the termination of a network sharing arrangement.
The fourth-quarter charge was not enough to offset gains in full-year net income, which jumped from a loss of $691 million in 2003 to a return of $7 million last year.
