For the first quarter ending March 31, the Redmond, Washington-based company reported net income of $135m, compared with a net loss of $178m, on revenues up 9.3% at $3.94bn. Analysts had expected revenue of $4bn, according to Thomson First Call. Services revenue rose 11.5% to $3.74bn.
The company said 283,000 customers were added during the quarter, but this fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, which ranged from 294,000 to 425,000 new customers. During the fourth quarter, AT&T Wireless added 705,000 customers. The company is the third-largest US mobile operator, and it ended the first quarter with approximately 21.14 million subscribers.
Churn rates dropped to 2.3%, its lowest level in nearly four years. Average revenue per customer, or ARPU, was $58.70 a month, which was roughly flat with the same year-ago quarter, but down from the fourth-quarter average of $60 a month.
Looking forward, the company said it is comfortable with its previous forecasts for 2003, which called for services revenue growth in the range of 5% to 7% and EBITDA growth at a low double-digit percentage rate.
Source: Computerwire
