Here is a summary of reports for selected telecommunications companies and what they reveal about their own and the industry's prospects:
Jan. 4: Leap Wireless International Inc., the parent of the Cricket service, says it added about 175,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter, roughly in line with analyst expectations.
Jan. 5: MetroPCS Communications Inc., the nation's fifth-largest cellphone company, says it had added a net 197,410 subscribers in the fourth quarter, below analyst expectations. Its fourth-quarter net additions were down by a third from the previous year's 297,726, mainly because existing subscribers left at higher rates.
Jan. 24: Verizon Communications Inc.'s wireless unit added 1.2 million subscribers on contract-based plans, which are the most lucrative. It was the second-best result in the last two years, further solidifying the company's position as the industry leader, with 87.4 million phones and other devices on contract-based plans, and 108.7 million total. Verizon activated 4.3 million iPhones.
Jan. 26: AT&T; Inc. gained a net 717,000 subscribers on contract plans in the quarter. That was the best result all year, but didn't match Verizon's 1.2 million. AT&T; has been lagging Verizon in this important measure for more than a year. The results also show that AT&T; is still the home of the iPhone, despite loss of exclusivity in the U.S. It activated 7.6 million iPhones in the latest quarter, accounting for one out of every five iPhones sold globally.
Feb. 8: Sprint Nextel Corp. reports a rare increase in the number of subscribers on contract-based plans, which are more lucrative than contract-free alternatives. It gained a net 161,000 such subscribers in the quarter. That was helped by Sprint's ability to join AT&T; and Verizon in selling the iPhone. It activated 1.8 million iPhones in the quarter, far fewer than its rivals.
Feb. 15: CenturyLink Inc. says it lost about 219,000 customers to end the year with 14.6 million phone lines.
Feb. 16: Leap Wireless says it gained about 179,000 subscribers in the quarter, slightly above a preliminary figure it gave in January. It ends the year with 5.9 million customers.
Frontier Communications Corp. ended the quarter with 3.27 million residential lines, down about 77,000 from the previous quarter.
Feb. 22: Windstream Corp., a local-phone company that's transforming itself into a business telecommunications provider, ended the year with 1.9 million consumer voice lines, down about 20,000.
Feb. 23: T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG, discloses numbers showing that customers have been leaving more rapidly as its three larger rivals all sell iPhones. The company says it lost a net 526,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter. Worse, it lost a net 802,000 subscribers on contract-based plans, which are the most lucrative. It's now losing subscribers from contract-based plans faster than regular phone companies are losing landline customers.
MetroPCS confirms it gained 197,410 subscribers in the quarter to end with 9.3 million customers.
Feb. 24: U.S. Cellular Corp. says it lost 41,000 subscribers during the quarter, ceding its position as the sixth-largest cellphone company to Leap Wireless, parent of the low-cost Cricket service. U.S. Cellular ended the year with 5.89 million subscribers. Leap had 5.93 million. US Cellular is a unit of Telephone Data and Systems Inc.
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