MetroPCS subscriber results for the third quarter are ’slightly d...
MetroPCS subscriber results for the third quarter are “slightly disappointing,” but the carrier should experience a turnaround as money from its Los Angeles expansion comes in, analysts said Friday. MetroPCS prereleased Q3 net addition and churn results Thursday. MetroPCS…
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added 114,000 subscribers, down from 197,623 a year earlier. MetroPCS signed 16.6 percent more customers, but a 0.2 percentage point rise in churn offset the gain. The numbers don’t take into account August’s Los Angeles launch because “marketing and distribution efforts will not fully ramp up” until the fourth quarter, MetroPCS said. The third quarter historically has been MetroPCS’s weakest. The carrier suffered mostly from “seasonal slowdown” in core and expansion markets, Stanford Group said. The fourth quarter should be better because the L.A. expansion is “tracking well,” the analyst firm said. The L.A. deployment and launches in New York, Philadelphia and Boston in late 2008 or early 2009 will be key to MetroPCS’s success, said Current Analysis’s William Ho. “Their future growth is clearly going to be in the expansion markets,” he said. MetroPCS usually does not pre-release quarterly results and “has no intention to pre-release results in future quarters,” MetroPCS said. However, the carrier is looking to be more transparent, given its bid to acquire Leap Wireless, a source close to the company said.