MetroPCS Communications’ quarterly results didn’t quite meet analysts expectations, as the company posted a net loss of $47 million, or 14 cents per share, compared with a loss of $17 million, or 15 cents per share, for the same quarter last year. But the low cost carrier posted a 31% rise in revenue to $591 million.
Losses for the quarter included a one-time charge of $83 million for losses related to the investment in auction rate securities. Excluding that, earnings were $36 million or 10 cents per share, slightly below Wall Street’s expectations of 12 cents per share.
Though the carrier added more net subscriber additions than expected, adding 298,568 new customers, analysts had expected additions of around 288,000. Customer churn rates for the quarter rose to 4.8%, and average revenue per user fell 61 cents to $42.54,which the carrier said was due to more customers participating in its family plans. At the end of the year MetroPCS had 3.96 million subscribers, 35% more than it finished with in 2006.
The carriers said it still expects to add 1.25 million to 1.52 million net subscribers in 2008.
