(RTTNews) - Wireless telecommunications carrier MetroPCS Communications Inc. (PCS: News ) on Thursday posted a 64% growth in its third-quarter profit, reflecting higher revenues and lower costs. However, the company said that net subscriber additions during the quarter were lower-than-expected primarily due to elevated churn and a deceleration in gross additions. Further, the company reaffirmed its fiscal 2009 forecast for capital expenditures provided last year.

Q3 Results

The Richardson, Texas-based company's third-quarter net income was $74 million or $0.21 per share, compared to $45 million or $0.13 per share in the year-ago quarter.

On average, 22 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to post earnings of $0.09 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

The most recent quarter results included about $18 million related to the reduction of a state unrecognized tax benefit associated with the expiration of a statute of limitations.

Quarterly revenues advanced to $896 million from $687 million reported a year ago, and surpassed the $869.40 million revenue consensus estimate of 18 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Services revenue for the latest quarter totaled $812 million, an increase of 33%, compared to $611 million reported in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Equipment revenues improved to $83.3 million from $76.0 million in the prior-year period.
Roger Linquist, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of MetroPCS, said, "In a seasonally slow quarter, we reported net additions that were below our expectations, due primarily to elevated churn and a deceleration in gross additions. We believe this was the result of continued U.S. macro-economic weakness, an increasingly competitive environment, and upward adjustments we made to the price of certain handsets."

Further, the company reported about 121 thousand net subscriber additions for the Northeast Markets during the third quarter. After enhancing its rate plans in August, MetroPCS recently unveiled additional marketing initiatives intended to address the evolving competitive marketplace.

Quarterly consolidated net subscriber additions during the latest quarter was 66 thousand, down from the previous year's net additions of 249.2 thousand.

Other Metrics

During the third quarter of 2009, average revenue per user, or ARPU, totaled $41.08, up $0.35 from the prior-year's $40.73, largely driven by favorable rate plan sales mix and its unlimited international calling plan launched in June 2009.

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