MetroPCS makes $193 million in Q3

The fifth largest carrier in the USA, MetroPCS, has also published their third quarter earnings which amounted to $193 million on revenue of $1.25 billion. That is an excellent gain of 178% from the $69 million net profit reported in the same quarter last year. Revenue was 4% higher this year. Churn dropped from 4.5% last year to 3.7% this year, still high. The carrier however lost 312,291 subscribers in the three month period, dropping the current total number of subscribers to slightly under 9 million. Of these, 1 million are signed up for the carrier’s 4G LTE service which works out to about 12% of MetroPCS’ total subscriber list. Average Revenue Per User remained flat at $40.50, but the Cost per User did drop off a bit to $18.38.

For those interested in business matters, MetroPCS is merging with T-Mobile in a reverse merger in which the public MetroPCS uses its shares to acquire T-Mobile. Roger D. Linquist, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MetroPCS, said the deal with T-Mobile will give his customers access to a larger selection of handsets and services. It’s obviously also good for T-Mobile, as the deal will bring them the MetroPCS’ LTE service and more spectrum, which should allow the Deutsche Telekom subsidiary to start building its own LTE pipeline next year. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of next year.