14 DAY TRIAL // Wireless carrier T-Mobile announced on Wednesday its financial results for the second quarter of the ongoing year. The company reported total revenues of $5.34 billion for the quarter, down from the $5.40 billion registered in Q1 2009, as well as from the $5.47 billion posted for the same time frame a year ago. In addition, it also announced OIBDA (Operating Income Before Depreciation And Amortization) of $1.60 billion for the quarter, up from the previous quarter ($1.38 billion) and from Q2 2008 ($1.58 billion).
While OIBDA went up 16 percent from the first quarter and 1 percent compared to the same time frame a year ago, the OIBDA margin in Q2 increased to 34 percent (from 29 percent in Q1 2009 and 33 percent in Q2 2008), the operator announced. The net income posted by the carrier for the three-month period was of $425 million, marking an increase from the $322 million registered in the first quarter of 2009, but also a drop from the $452 million reported in Q2 last year.
“In 2009, we're launching the best products and services we've ever brought to market,” said Robert Dotson, president and CEO, T-Mobile USA. “In the quarter, we unveiled devices like our new T-Mobile myTouch 3G with Google. The myTouch will join other new T-Mobile 3G devices just in time for a powerful back-to-school offering available in even more locations with our newly announced RadioShack retail agreement. In the quarter, we also made steady progress in growing data revenues as more customers move to craved-for mobile internet and messaging services. And finally, in Q2 we also drove operational cost efficiencies that helped us deliver a much better margin for the quarter.”
Other highlights from the company's announcement include the addition of 325,000 net new customers, a decrease compared to the 415,000 added a quarter before or to the 668,000 added a year ago, though the carrier states that its total customer base included 81 percent contract customers from a total of 33.5 million customers the operator accounted for as of June 30. The contract churn rate went down to 2.2 percent in the time frame, compared to the 2.3 percent in the first quarter, though increasing from the 1.9 percent registered a year ago. Blended churn, the carrier says, meaning both contract and prepaid churn, was of 3.1 percent in the quarter.