Virgin Mobile USA: Poor earnings economy's fault

Virgin Mobile USA weathered a difficult first quarter as net service revenue declined 5.8 percent year-on-year to $303.8 million, because of a downturn in the economy, the MVNO said. The decline was also partly due to Virgin Mobile's decision in the fourth quarter of 2007 "not to invest in temporary, aggressive handset pricing engaged in by certain competitors," according to the carrier's press release. Despite the downturn, Virgin expects to produce growth in profitability during 2008.

Net income: Virgin Mobile posted $4.7 million in net income, down from $19.2 million this time last year. The MVNO blamed lower top up streams related to the decline in consumer spending.

New subscribers: The MVNO added 795,575 gross new subscribers, down from 881,756 in the first quarter of last year. Virgin now has 5.1 million total subscribers.

Churn: Average monthly churn, or customer turnover was 5.1 percent, as expected.

ARPU: Average revenue per user for Q1 came in at $19.93, down from 2007's first quarter ARPU of $22.41.

For more:
- read this release on Virgin Mobile USA's Q1 2008 results