14 DAY TRIAL // MetroPCS has announced that its revenue for the first quarter of the ongoing year has reached $795 million, increasing 20 percent from the $622 million registered during the same time frame a year ago. At the same time, the company has also mentioned that the ARPU in the quarter went down to $40.40, lower than the $42.51 posted a year ago.
In addition to seeing its revenue increase, the carrier also managed to register net subscriber additions of 684,000, which translates into a 37 percent year-on-year net subscriber growth. Even so, the company announced that its churn rate went up to 5 percent, compared to the 4 percent it had registered during the first three months of last year. The decline in ARPU, says the carriers, was driven by a decrease in MetroFlash (MetroPCS's CDMA flash service) revenue, as a smaller number of users acquired $49 handsets, compared to re-flashing their existing handsets.
The company stated that quarterly growth in Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA (Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) was of around 12 percent, while consolidated income from operations was of around 17 percent. At the same time, it seems that the carrier, a leading provider of unlimited, flat-rate wireless communications service in the US, ended the first quarter of the year with a number of 6.1 million subscribers.
“We are very pleased to announce record quarterly net subscriber additions of approximately 684 thousand in the first quarter of 2009. In the midst of the ongoing challenging economic conditions, and as voice continues to go wireless, we see consumers recognizing the value of our service as well as consumers cutting the wireline cord,” said Roger D. Linquist, chairman, president and chief executive officer of MetroPCS.
Among the other facts that MetroPCS announced we can mention a 0.6 percent increase in Core Markets Penetration in the first quarter, highest share of gross subscriber additions in the US, new service launched in Boston and New York metropolitan areas, the introduction of new smartphones, including the Blackberry Curve, the Samsung Finesse and Motorola Hint, as well as the launch of GroupLINE and Mexico Unlimited. In addition, we should also mention that the company added around 1.6 new subscribers during the past 12 months, which translates into a subscriber growth of 37 percent.
“This is an exciting time for MetroPCS. We intend to continue to focus on superior execution and on increasing brand awareness. While the U.S. economy continues to be challenged, I am pleased to report that the resilience of our business model and the dedication and focus of our employees enables us to once again reiterate the full year 2009 guidance we first provided in November of 2008. As the sixth largest facility-based wireless carrier in the country, we are pleased with our continued growth and we will continue to focus on providing superior value to our customers,” Linquist concluded.