United States Cellular Corporation (NYSE:USM) last Friday reported total operating revenues of $963 million for the second quarter of 2017, versus $992 million for the same period one year ago. Net income attributable to U.S. Cellular shareholders and related diluted earnings per share were $12 million and $0.14, respectively, for the second quarter of 2017, compared to $27 million and $0.32, respectively, in the same period one year ago.
Capital expenditures were at $500M for the period, unchanged from last year.
“We had a successful quarter building on our number one objective – protecting and growing our customer base,” said U.S. Cellular President/CEO Ken Meyers. “Our total plans, which include an unlimited data option, have been effective in both attracting new customers and meeting the needs of our current customers.”
“Although the current pricing environment and the investments we made in growing our customer base impacted short-term profitability this quarter, we were able to minimize those impacts through our on-going cost management initiatives. Lower roaming rates, continued customer adoption of equipment installment plans and cost reduction initiatives, drove a decrease in cash expenses even as data traffic increased 51 percent on a year-over-year basis,” Meyers said.
“This quarter, our network team successfully completed our first commercial VoLTE launch in Iowa. VoLTE brings benefits such as simultaneous voice and data sessions to customers as well as additional opportunities for roaming revenues. We plan to continue commercial rollouts of VoLTE to additional markets in 2018.”
August 7, 2017
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