Q3 2008 results

Re: AT&T: Q3 shatters previous records

Apparently the person at RCR Wireless News didn't do enough research. AT&T/Cingular added 2.4 million customers in 4th Qtr. 2006, which remains as the highest net adds for any carrier in any quarter of all time. So this is not an "all-time" high adds quarter this reporter thinks it is.

Anyway 1.7m is pretty darn good. It will be interesting to see if Verizon will have as good of a quarter or not.

 

Re: AT&T: Q3 shatters previous records

I wonder if it is postpaid vs. prepaid. The AT&T release is more specific than the RCR article:

AT&T- News Room

 

Here's a thread to discuss the results of the carriers. I will merge in that AT&T thread.

 

Verizon Reports Continued Growth in 3Q: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Wireless Continues Strong and Steady Growth

Verizon Wireless continued its uninterrupted record of industry-leading customer loyalty and profitability. In the third quarter:

* Wireless retail gross customer additions were strong, up 5.3 percent over the prior year.
* Organic growth (growth from sources other than acquisitions) was 1.5 million retail net customer additions, essentially all post-paid.
* Total growth was 2.1 million retail net additions. This included 630,000 retail customers from the Rural Cellular Corp. acquisition, and Verizon expects to have a net loss of approximately 120,000 of these customers under an exchange agreement with another carrier. Verizon Wireless had 70.8 million total customers at the end of the quarter.
* The company continues to have a high-quality customer base, with 68.8 million retail wireless customers -- the most of any wireless brand in the U.S.
* Verizon Wireless had industry-leading (lowest) total churn for the 16th consecutive quarter, at 1.33 percent. Among the company's retail post-paid customers, churn was even lower at 1.03 percent.
* Verizon Wireless continued its double-digit revenue growth, with total revenues of $12.7 billion, up 12.5 percent year over year. Service revenues were $10.9 billion, up 12.2 percent year over year, driven by customer growth and demand for data services.
* This revenue growth was driven by ARPU (average monthly revenue per customer), which increased year over year for the 10th consecutive quarter. Total service ARPU of $52.18 was up 0.9 percent year over year, reflecting strong growth in total data ARPU, which was up 28.3 percent.
* Wireless operating income margin was 27.3 percent, up 20 basis points year over year.
* EBITDA margin on service revenues (non-GAAP) was 44.2 percent. (EBITDA is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.)

 

I have to say that Verizon pretty much smoked AT&T considering they had the omnipotent iPhone (which cost AT&T dearly for the subsidies) for the entire quarter. Verizon had these adds without a superstar phone, cut rate pricing or any other gimmick. It must really be the network. I know that is why I am back with them. I have to say once again, these huge adds from T and VZ can't bode well for S.

 

MetroPCS Reports Third Quarter 2008 Results

DALLAS, Nov 05, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- --Quarterly service revenues of $611 million, an increase of approximately 25% over third quarter of 2007
--Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA of $201 million, representing approximately 9% year over year growth
--Quarterly net subscriber additions of approximately 249 thousand
--Churn of 4.8%, down 40 basis points year over year
--Reaffirms outlook for 2008 and provides outlook for 2009

PCS 13.70, -0.94, -6.4%) , the nation's leading provider of affordable, flexible and predictable unlimited wireless communications service for a flat-rate with no signed contract, today announced financial and operational results for the quarter ended September 30, 2008. MetroPCS reported Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA of $201 million for the third quarter of 2008.

"We are pleased to report very solid results in the third quarter, highlighted by strong subscriber growth and reduced customer churn when compared to the prior year quarter in both our Core and Expansion Markets. With the current challenging economic environment, the fundamentals of our business continue to show favorable trends and results. These results demonstrate the resiliency of our business as we added approximately 249 thousand subscribers in the third quarter and approximately 1.2 million subscribers during the last four quarters. We also are pleased to report that we have achieved another significant milestone having recently surpassed five million subscribers. While aggressively growing our business and capitalizing on the accelerating rate of wireline replacement, we have maintained our discipline of being a low cost provider and continued to deliver sustainable profitable growth," said Roger D. Linquist, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of MetroPCS.

"At the end of the second quarter of this year we introduced the evolutionary 'MetroFlash' service, which enables consumers to bring their existing CDMA handsets to MetroPCS and join the MetroPCS network. MetroFlash has been very successful. This service makes it easier for potential customers to join our network and avoid the cost of purchasing a new handset. This is especially important in this time of economic hardship.

"At the beginning of the third quarter, we reached another important milestone with the launch of service in our first Northeast market, Philadelphia. We continue to build our remaining planned Northeast markets and we look forward to our upcoming launches of service in the New York and Boston metropolitan areas. We expect our Northeast markets will represent a significant opportunity for the future growth of MetroPCS. The Northeast includes some of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the country that we believe are ideal for MetroPCS' predictable, affordable and flexible service.

"We are also excited about the new opportunities now available to us after the recently signed roaming agreement with Leap Wireless. This agreement covers all of our and Leap's current and future markets, and which, when fully built, could ultimately cover the top 200 markets in the nation and would effectively be a 5th national network," Linquist concluded.

For the third quarter of 2008, MetroPCS reported consolidated total revenues of approximately $687 million, an increase of 23% over the third quarter of 2007, and income from operations of approximately $121 million, a decrease of 9% when compared to the third quarter of 2007. The Company reported third quarter 2008 consolidated net income of approximately $45 million, or $0.13 per common share, as compared to consolidated net income of $53 million for the same period in 2007.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/MetroPCS-Reports-Third-Quarter-2008/story.aspx?guid={5FCF7061-8840-41DA-9E92-4441583F1236}

 

T-Mobile USA Reports Third Quarter 2008 Results: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

T-Mobile USA Reports Third Quarter 2008 Results
Thursday November 6, 1:00 am ET
-- $1.53 billion Operating Income Before Depreciation and Amortization ("OIBDA") in the third quarter of 2008, up 8% from the third quarter of 2007
-- 670,000 net new customers added in the third quarter of 2008
-- Service revenues of $4.9 billion in the third quarter of 2008, up 13% from the third quarter of 2007
-- Data services revenue in the third quarter of 2008, up 28% from the third quarter of 2007
-- T-Mobile USA's 3G network to cover more than 120 cities by the end of November
-- Launch of T-Mobile services in former SunCom markets during the quarter
-- T-Mobile G1 with Google launched on October 22nd -- the first phone powered by Android


Not a good quarter, IMO. Churn WAY up, over half of their adds were prepay (although the Flex-Pay prepay is much better than the old prepay financially), and they admitted to competitive pressures.

 

Sprint Nextel posts 3Q loss, revenue falls: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Sprint Nextel Third Quarter Highlights

-- Lost $326 million in the third quarter as it continued to hemorrhage customers and announced a change in its credit terms that restricts the payment of dividends.
-- Revenue fell 12 percent to $8.81 billion from $10.0 billion a year ago. Analysts expected $8.85 billion in revenue for the latest quarter.
-- Shares fell 22 cents, or 6 percent, to $3.46 in morning trading Friday.
-- Reported a 13 percent decline in revenue to $7.5 billion
-- Lost a net of 1.3 million subscribers, including 1.1 million valuable "postpaid" customers who have monthly contracts.
-- Postpaid churn was slightly less than 2.15 percent, up from 2 percent in the previous quarter.
-- Wireline business, largely used for high-speed Internet customers, reported a 24 percent decrease in operating income to $120 million while quarterly revenues fell 2 percent to $1.58 billion.
-- Sprint Nextel now has 50.5 million customers


Ouch, another horrific quarter, where not even the Instinct could make a positive impact.

 

Ouch. Sprint contunues to implode

 

Here are Alltel's 3rd quarter numbers. No one posted this when it was released last Tuesday (Nov. 4).

Alltel Adds 335,000+ Wireless Customers in the Third Quarter - MarketWatch

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Nov 04, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Alltel achieved strong customer growth in the third quarter, adding more than 1 million gross customers for the fourth consecutive quarter. Net customer additions increased 63 percent year-over-year.

"The Alltel team delivered another terrific quarter, and I continue to admire their ability to execute in a fiercely competitive marketplace," said President and Chief Executive Officer Scott Ford. "Once again we had strong customer additions and record consolidated EBITDA."
Alltel announced plans on June 5 to be acquired by Verizon Wireless. The deal is awaiting final regulatory approval and is expected to close before year's end.

Among Alltel's highlights for the third quarter:

-- Revenues were $2.5 billion, a 10 percent increase from the same period a year ago. The company reported a loss of $55.2 million, due primarily to significant increases in interest costs and depreciation and amortization expense following the completion of the company's November 2007 merger with an affiliate of TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners.

-- Consolidated EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) was $929.8 million, a 13 percent increase from the same period a year ago.

-- Alltel added more than 1 million gross customers through internal growth, a 28 percent increase from a year ago. Post-pay net additions were 255,299, up 20 percent year-over-year, and prepay net adds were 52,722. Reseller net adds were 27,131. Total net adds were 335,152.

-- Post-pay churn was 1.33 percent, and total churn was 2.02 percent.

-- Average revenue per wireless customers (ARPU) was $55.62. Data revenue per wireless customer was $8.99, up 42 percent year-over-year.

Alltel operates America's largest (geographic) wireless network, which delivers voice and advanced data services nationwide to nearly 14 million customers. Headquartered in Little Rock, Ark., Alltel is a Forbes 500 company with annual revenues of nearly $9 billion.

 

I find it irritating that Alltel exclaims "1 million gross adds" in their press release. I realize it sounds better for them, but it's completely misleading. I've already seen them misquoted (by a poster on HoFo, for example,as well as PhoneArena in a previous quarter).

Having 1M gross adds is nice, but they neglect to point out they lost 665,000 customers to end up with their net add actuals of 335,000.

I know all the carriers are known to stretch the truth, but when it comes to subscriber numbers, ADDS should be stated correctly, IMO.

Nonetheless, Alltel still had a great quarter.

Also, I adjusted the title of the quoted news report link to reflect the truth.

 

Wow.... That's disappointing. And the economy doesn't help.

 

Another ironic problem for Sprint is now T-Mobile is closer to them in subs(32.1M to 50.4M) with only an 18.3M customer gap versus the now 20.4M gap between Sprint (50.4M) and Verizon (pre-Alltel merger with 70.8M).

So as it stands now as of 3rd quarter 2008:

1. AT&T 72.9 million
2. Verizon 70.8 million
3. Sprint Nextel 50.4 million
4. T-Mobile 32.1 million
5. Alltel 14 million