Cingular Wireless added 1.7 million subscribers in the first quarter, making it a profitable company as it earned $354 million for the three months ending March 31, compared with a loss of $240 million in the same period a year ago. While ARPU fell, the company reduced monthly subscriber churn to 1.9 percent. Interestingly, Cingular said retail customers accounted for more than 1 million of the net adds for the quarter, including a sequential improvement of more than 41 percent in postpaid customers. Net adds also reflected Cingular's national distribution agreement with RadioShack, although we don't know how many sales were done through the struggling retailer. In fact, analysts are saying 2006 results will be a mess for RadioShack, partly because of its difficult transition from selling Verizon services to Cingular services.
To read more about Cingular's results and RadioShack's continued woes:
- check out this release from Cingular
- take a look at this report from Forbes.com