ALEXANDRIA, Minn.—Rural Cellular Corp. continued to bleed customers as its churn rate edged upward to 2.6 percent in the first quarter of 2006. However, the company’s revenues were up by about 8 percent, with particular strength in roaming revenue, and it also increased its average revenues per user.
RCC, which serves customers in 15 states, lost about 7,800 customers in the first quarter. The operator’s total customer base has fallen by roughly 100,000 customers between the first quarter of 2005 and the first quarter of 2006. RCC’s churn rate was up 0.2 percent from last year’s first quarter, and the company ended the first quarter with about 586,500 postpaid customers, 11,900 prepaid customers and nearly 99,400 wholesale customers.
RCC’s ARPU was $69, up around 19 percent from the same period last year. Of that, the contribution from local service revenue increased more than 8 percent to $51. The company received $11.3 million in payments from the Universal Service Fund, and its network costs jumped about 20 percent due to operating multiple networks and the expansion of RCC’s network footprint with 187 new towers.
