Virgin Mobile reports $4.4M Q4 loss, but boosts revenue

Virgin Mobile USA reported a net loss in the fourth quarter of 2008 of $4.4 million, compared to a net loss of $14.7 million in the year-ago quarter. However, the prepaid MVNO had a positive net income of $7.9 million for the full year, compared to $4.2 million for 2007, and increased its subscriber base for the year by 6 percent. 

Revenue: Virgin Mobile had a net service revenue of $326.7 million in the quarter, a 10 percent increase compared to the year-ago quarter. For all of 2008, Virgin Mobile's net service revenue was $1.2 billion, consistent with net service revenue in 2007.

Subscriber additions: The carrier had 216,000 net additions in the quarter, up 3 percent from the year-ago period. Virgin also reported that it ended 2008 with 5.38 million total subscribers, compared to 5.1 million at the end of 2007. The company said it had more than 3.3 million gross additions during the year.

Churn: The carrier said churn for the fourth quarter was 4.8 percent, down from 5.5 percent in the third quarter of 2008 and 5.1 percent in the year-ago period.

ARPU: Virgin Mobile reported ARPU of $21.14, a 4 percent increase from $20.36 in the year-ago quarter and a 3 percent bump from the third quarter of 2008. ARPU for the full year was $20.30, a 4 percent decline compared to $21.24 in 2007. The company said ARPU in the fourth quarter benefited from the launch of its revised hybrid plans in the second quarter of 2008.

For more:
- see this release [1]

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