VoiceStream Looses Just over US$3 Billion

T-Mobile has announced last year's financial results of its USA operations, consisting of VoiceStream and Powertel.

For the full year ended December 31, 2001, VoiceStream added 2,205,800 net new subscribers, including 118,000 from acquisitions, increasing its subscriber base by 46% in 2001. Contract net additions amounted to 1,792,900, or 86% of internally generated net additions in 2001.

Contract ARPU for the full year 2001 was up very slightly at US$53 compared to US$51 in 2000. Blended ARPU, including prepaid and roaming revenues, was US$49 in 2001 compared to US$50 in 2000. Total revenues for the year were US$4.0 billion, an increase of 63% from US$2.4 billion in 2000. Average usage per contract subscriber per month was 565 minutes in 2001 compared to 400 minutes in 2000.

The Adjusted EBITDA loss for 2001 was US$388 million. Adjusted EBITDA loss does not include employee incentive bonuses of US$83 million in connection with the acquisition of VoiceStream and Powertel by Deutsche Telekom. The net loss however was reported at just over US$3 billion, although the net loss in each quarter was on a downward trend through out the year, which is a positive sign.

Capital expenditures amounted to US$1,755 million for 2001 and VoiceStream's covered POPs increased to 152 million at the end of 2001 with the launch of the New Orleans, Louisiana market in November.

VoiceStream saw a steady increase through the last quarter of subscribers signing up for its GPRS services. Although GPRS subscribers were less than 10% of net new subscribers in the fourth quarter, they are expected to become a larger part of net new subscribers during 2002."

Posted to the site on 5th March 2002