Miami — No-contract cellular MVNO TracFone Wireless posted a 9.6 percent revenue gain to $1.66 billion and 1.85 million net subscriber additions in the first quarter, thanks mainly to its Jan. 16 acquisition of MVNO Start Wireless Group.
Start Wireless, which does business as Page Plus, had 1.4 million subscribers when purchased.
Excluding the Page Plus acquisition, TracFone netted 452,000 new subscribers, down from the year-ago 839,000 net new additions and down from the fourth quarter’s 616,00 net adds.
ARPU was flat at $19 compared with the year-ago quarter, and churn rose slightly to 3.8 percent from a year-ago 3.7 percent.
Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) hits $210 million, up from the year-ago $59 million.
TracFone ended the quarter with 25.5 million subscribers compared with the year-ago 23.2 million, an increase of 9.8 percent.
TracFone owner America Movil of Mexico City posted a 1.3 percent revenue gain to 195.4 billion pesos ($14.9 billion), and net income fell 48.2 percent to 13.9 billion pesos ($1.06 billion.)
America Movil operates landline and wireless networks throughout Latin America and in Europe.
