REDMOND, Wash.—AT&T Wireless Services Inc. added 650,000 net subscribers during the first quarter of this year, exceeding both company and analyst expectations of around 550,000 net additions. The carrier ended the quarter with 19.5 million customers including those acquired through its purchase of TeleCorp PCS Inc. Including its other affiliates, AT&T Wireless served 21.4 million customers.
Average revenue per user was reported at $58.60, in line with estimates, with monthly customer churn of 2.6 percent coming in just below estimates of 2.7 percent.
Total revenues for the quarter increased more than 12 percent compared with the previous year from $3.2 billion to $3.6 billion. Net loss also jumped more than 300 percent from $42 million, a loss of 2 cents per share, to $178 million, a loss of 7 cents per share.
AT&T Wireless blamed the increase in loss on the cumulative effect of a change in accounting principle recorded in the first quarter due to transitional impairment losses recorded by its investment in unconsolidated subsidiaries.
