UPDATE: Cingular Adds 2.4 Million Net Users

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) -- Cingular Wireless, the nation's biggest mobile-phone carrier in terms of customers, said Wednesday that fourth-quarter profit more than tripled as the company added a record 2.4 million net subscribers.

The mobile phone company, which is adopting the brand name of parent company AT&T, said net income jumped to $782 million from $204 million a year earlier.

Revenue rose 10.2% to $9.8 billion from $8.85 billion, as the company easily topped Wall Street's forecast for net customers. Cingular was expected to add around 1.6 million net subscribers.

Operating income climbed to $1.8 billion from $1.3 billion, adjusted for onetime costs and benefits. The company's adjusted operating margin rose to 18.9% from 14.4% a year earlier.

Cingular is now entirely owned by AT&T after that phone carrier acquired BellSouth at the end of 2006. AT&T is transitioning Cingular to the AT&T brand and is expected to include future results in the parent company's financial reports.

At the end of 2006, Cingular served 61 million customers. The company's nearest rival, Verizon Wireless, served nearly 57 million at the end of the third quarter, but Verizon generates more revenue from its mobile business than Cingular does.

During the quarter, Cingular said average monthly revenue per subscriber rose to $49.29 from $48.86 in the year-ago quarter, helped by higher data usage among customers. Yet average monthly revenue fell slightly compared to the prior quarter.

Churn - or the percentage of customers who cancel service - was flat at 1.8% overall and just 1.5% for postpaid customers, or those who are signed up for annual plans and pay their bills at the end of each month.

Churn is a key barometer of success in the wireless business.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 24th January 2007