SCHAUMBURG, Ill.-Regional carrier and Sprint Nextel Corp. CDMA affiliate iPCS Inc. reported a net loss of $17.2 million, or $1.03 per share, although the operator’s churn rate was down and it had solid net customer additions of nearly 19,000 subscribers for its first fiscal quarter of 2006 that ended Dec. 31, 2005.
iPCS merged with fellow CDMA affiliate Horizon Personal Communications Inc. last July. The company had total revenues of $109.6 million for the quarter and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $13.2 million, down from the $14.1 million pro forma EBITDA for the first quarter of fiscal 2005. iPCS said it spent about $3.7 million last quarter on merger integration, severance expenses and litigation with Sprint Nextel.
iPCS is one of the few remaining independent Sprint Nextel affiliates; Sprint Nextel already has acquired most of its affiliates.
iPCS also saw its overall average revenue per user drop from about $50 to $49.
iPCS previously announced net customer additions of about 18,900 in the fiscal first quarter, compared with 7,300 pro forma net adds in the same period of 2005 and 17,400 net adds in the third quarter of 2005; iPCS ended the year with 495,300 customers. The carrier’s monthly churn rate was 2.6 percent, compared to 3.1-percent pro forma for the same quarter in fiscal 2005 and 2.7 percent for the third quarter of fiscal 2005.
