Qwest Communications International Inc. said it lost 24,000 wireless subscribers during the fourth quarter of last year, which was an improvement compared with the 36,000 subscribers the company lost during the fourth quarter of 2003.
Qwest noted that it ended 2004 with 754,000 wireless subscribers-compared with 893,000 at the end of 2003-and it supported approximately 95 percent of its customer base through a mobile virtual network operator agreement using Sprint PCS’ network. The transition is expected to be completed during the first quarter of this year.
Qwest announced a deal last June to sell its own network assets and spectrum holdings to Verizon Wireless for $418 million, which is expected to be completed following the transition of Qwest’s customer base to Sprint PCS’ network.
Despite the customer losses, Qwest said it was serving a more profitable customer base with nearly 80 percent of gross subscriber additions signing up for high-end national plans and with 35 percent of its total customer base on such plans. The claim was partially backed by a 1-percent increase in average revenue per user from $45 during the fourth quarter of 2003 to $46 last year.
Despite the ARPU increase, wireless service revenues dropped 10 percent year-over-year from $138 million during the fourth quarter of 2003 to $124 million last year. Full-year revenues dropped 14 percent from $594 million in 2003 to $510 million in 2004.
