Cingular swings to profit in first quarter

<p>Cingular Wireless LLC, the nation's largest cell phone provider, reported Wednesday that it swung to a profit in the first quarter on a 9 percent increase in revenue.</p><p>The Atlanta-based company said it earned $354 million for the three months ending March 31, compared to a loss of $240 million in the same period a year ago.</p><p>Revenue rose to $8.98 billion, compared to $8.23 billion recorded in the same period a year ago.</p><p>The company said it ended the first quarter with 55.8 million subscribers. It said it had 1.7 million net subscriber additions in the quarter.</p><p>Average monthly revenue per user declined 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter to $48.48, compared to $49.60 in the same period a year ago. But monthly churn _ the rate at which customers switch to other providers _ dropped to 1.9 percent, compared to 2.2 percent in the year-ago period.</p><p>Operating expenses in the first quarter totaled $8.2 billion.</p><p>Pete Ritcher, Cingular's chief financial officer, said in an interview he is pleased with the results.</p><p>He said the company is trying to improve its network and its customers' experience. He said that average revenue per user was down overall because of lower revenue from customers who buy from resellers.</p><p>"When we look at our retail average revenue per user _ those customers we're providing Cingular-branded service to _ we're actually up on average revenue per user, and that's an encouraging sign for us," Ritcher said.</p><p>Cingular is a joint venture of Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp. and San Antonio-based AT&T Inc., the renamed SBC Communications Inc. Cingular's name is expected to be phased out if AT&T's proposed $67 billion purchase of BellSouth is approved. The deal is expected to close in 2007.</p><p>Ritcher said the company is focused on its current operations, and he declined to talk about the rebranding effort that would occur if the merger is approved.</p><p>"It's a merger of two parents," Ritcher said, contrasting Cingular's $41 billion purchase of AT&T Wireless Services Inc. in 2004. "What we won't be doing in a year is converting two wireless networks again. We won't be having to go through and take two billing systems and bring them down to one."</p><p>No. 2 cell phone provider Verizon Wireless, based in Bedminster, N.J., is a venture of telecommunications companies Verizon Communications Inc. of New York and Vodafone Group PLC of the United Kingdom.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc250)</p>

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