Alltel Corp. posted $1.2 billion in wireless revenues during the third quarter of this year, which was a 13-percent increase compared with the $1.1 billion in revenues the company reported during the third quarter of 2002. The strong wireless growth helped the telecommunications provider offset a smaller gain in its wireline operations and report an increase in net income from $237.8 million last year, a return of 76 cents per share, to $242.8 million this year, a return of 78 cents per share.
Alltel reported robust wireless financial results despite a drop in customer growth from 67,648 internally driven net additions last year to 49,662 internally driven net additions during the third quarter of this year. The company’s total net additions dropped from 715,518 subscribers during the third quarter of 2002, helped by the acquisition of CenturyTel Inc.’s wireless operations, to 55,791 customers this year. Alltel finished the third quarter with more than 7.9 million wireless customers.
The slower customer growth was offset by a 3-percent increase in average revenue per user from $47.84 last year to $49.10 this year and a 2-percent drop in cost per gross addition from $310 during the third quarter of 2002 to $305 this year. Alltel also posted an increase in customer churn from 2.42 percent last year to 2.75 percent this year.
