BELLEVUE, Wash.-Western Wireless Corp. reported $413.6 million in consolidated revenues during the fourth quarter of 2003 compared with $305 million during the previous year. Net income also increased from a loss of $22.9 million during the fourth quarter of 2002, a loss of 29 cents per share, to a return of $2.1 million in 2003, or 2 cents per share.
For the year, Western Wireless witnessed revenues increase from $1.2 billion in 2002 to $1.5 billion last year, while net losses decreased from $185.7 million in 2002, a loss of $2.35 per share, to $338,000 in 2003, or no return per share.
Domestic roaming revenue dropped slightly during the fourth quarter from $55.5 million in 2002 to $53.4 million last year with full-year roaming revenue falling from $228.9 million in 2002 to $217.4 million in 2002.
Western Wireless also reported 24,800 domestic net customer additions during the fourth quarter with 174,500 net customer additions from its international operations during the quarter. Domestic customer churn fell slightly from 2.2 percent during the fourth quarter of 2002 to 2.1 percent last year, while average revenue per user excluding roaming revenue increased from $43.67 during the fourth quarter of 2002 to $48.08 last year.
The carrier added that at the end of 2003 more than 65 percent of its network was covered by CDMA technology and that it had completed its ongoing GSM/GPRS overlay on about 186 cell sites, or roughly 30 percent of its planned coverage area and was now providing GSM roaming services.
