Nextel Partners Inc. posted strong first-quarter results led by company-record 99,400 net customer additions, compared with the 88,800 customers the carrier signed up during the first quarter of 2004. Nextel Partners ended the first quarter of this year with more than 1.7 million total subscribers.
John Chapple, Nextel Partners president and chief executive officer, noted that the carrier has decided to postpone the deployment of Boost Mobile services into its network until at least 2006 due to back-office integration issues. Chapple did note that the carrier would expand its automatic spending limit program that was initially tested in Texas, targeting small- and medium-sized businesses.
Customer churn dipped from the 1.5 percent posted during the first quarter of 2004 to 1.4 percent this year, but increased sequentially from the 1.3-percent churn Nextel Partners reported for the fourth quarter of last year. ARPU remained steady at $67, which Nextel Partners’ management said was the first time in company history that ARPU remained stable sequentially between the fourth and first quarters.
Total revenues climbed more than 31 percent from $308.1 million during the first quarter of 2004 to $404.1 million this year, ahead of the $385 million in revenue forecasts by analysts. Nextel Partners noted that roaming revenues attributed 12 percent to total revenues during the quarter.
Nextel Partners also reported $56.5 million in net income for the quarter, a return of 19 cents per share, which was a 15-fold increase compared with the $3.5 million posted last year. The increase was attributed to its robust revenue growth.
