EDINBURG, Va., Jan. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel) (NASDAQ: SHEN) announces preliminary operating statistics for the fourth quarter and year-end 2019.
“We achieved our second consecutive quarter of record postpaid wireless gross and net postpaid additions in the fourth quarter 2019, driven in part by our network and distribution investments in the recently acquired Parkersburg expansion areas. We grew postpaid gross and net additions in 2019 by 24% and 142%, respectively, giving us strong sales momentum in our Wireless business as we enter 2020,” said President and CEO Christopher French “Our Cable and Wireline focus on increasing broadband penetration, together with the acquisition of Big Sandy Broadband, produced 11.3% year-over-year growth in cable broadband RGUs with broadband penetration increasing to 40.7% as of December 31, 2019. We continue to see the benefits of the recently completed DOCSIS 3.1 upgrades which have enabled 1 Gigabit download speeds across our footprint, while our new rate card and ongoing improvements in customer service and operations have significantly increased customer satisfaction and retention.”
| WIRELESS | December 31, 2019 | December 31, 2018 | ||
| Retail PCS subscribers – postpaid | 844,194 | 795,176 | ||
| Retail PCS subscribers – prepaid | 274,012 | 258,704 | ||
| Total PCS subscribers | 1,118,206 | 1,053,880 |
| Three Months Ended | Twelve Months Ended | |||||||||
| December 31, | December 31, | |||||||||
| WIRELESS | 2019 | 2018 | 2019 | 2018 | ||||||
| Gross PCS subscriber additions – postpaid | 71,830 | 54,517 | 235,953 | 190,334 | ||||||
| Net PCS subscriber additions – postpaid | 20,777 | 9,639 | 49,018 | 20,236 | (1) | |||||
| Gross PCS subscriber additions – prepaid | 39,352 | 38,225 | 152,098 | 150,662 | ||||||
| Net PCS subscriber additions – prepaid | 2,461 | 3,242 | 15,308 | 17,191 | (1) | |||||
| PCS average monthly retail churn % – postpaid | 2.05% | 1.90% | 1.92% | 1.82% | ||||||
| PCS average monthly retail churn % – prepaid | 4.52% | 4.55% | 4.26% | 4.45% | ||||||
(1) Results exclude 38,343 postpaid and 15,691 prepaid subscribers acquired on February 1, 2018 in the Richmond Expansion Area.
| CABLE AND WIRELINE | December 31, 2019 (2) | December 31, 2018 | |||||||||||||
| Cable (3) | Wireline | Total | Cable | Wireline | Total | ||||||||||
| Cable homes passed | 189,762 | 16,500 | 206,262 | 185,119 | 16,500 | 201,619 | |||||||||
| Video RGUs | 48,613 | 5,024 | 53,637 | 53,086 | 5,586 | 58,672 | |||||||||
| Penetration | 25.6% | 30.4% | 26.0% | 28.7% | 33.9% | 29.1% | |||||||||
| Broadband RGUs | 77,227 | 6,689 | 83,916 | 70,183 | 5,206 | 75,389 | |||||||||
| Penetration | 40.7% | 40.5% | 40.7% | 37.9% | 31.6% | 37.4% | |||||||||
| Voice RGUs | 24,152 | 7,213 | 31,365 | 23,810 | 5,664 | 29,474 | |||||||||
| Penetration | 12.7% | 43.7% | 15.2% | 12.9% | 34.3% | 14.6% | |||||||||
| Total Cable RGUs | 149,992 | 18,926 | 168,918 | 147,079 | 16,456 | 163,535 | |||||||||
| CABLE AND WIRELINE | December 31, 2019 (2) | December 31, 2018 | |||||||||||
| Cable | Wireline | Total | Cable | Wireline | Total | ||||||||
| Rural Local Exchange Carrier ("RLEC") | |||||||||||||
| RLEC homes passed | — | 25,495 | 25,495 | — | 25,457 | 25,457 | |||||||
| RLEC RGUs | |||||||||||||
| Data RLEC | — | 7,797 | 7,797 | — | 9,104 | 9,104 | |||||||
| Penetration | — | 30.6% | 30.6% | — | 35.8% | 35.8% | |||||||
| Voice RLEC | — | 14,332 | 14,332 | — | 15,698 | 15,698 | |||||||
| Penetration | — | 56.2% | 56.2% | — | 61.7% | 61.7% | |||||||
| Total RLEC RGUs | — | 22,129 | 22,129 | — | 24,802 | 24,802 | |||||||
(2) Homes passed are as of September 30, 2019.
(3) Excludes Glo Fiber results.
About Shenandoah Telecommunications
Shenandoah Telecommunications Company (Shentel) provides a broad range of diversified communications services through its high speed, state-of-the-art network to customers in the Mid-Atlantic United States. The Company’s services include: wireless voice and data; cable video, internet and digital voice; fiber network and services; and regulated local and long distance telephone. Shentel is the exclusive personal communications service (“PCS”) Affiliate of Sprint in a multi-state area covering large portions of central and western Virginia, south-central Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and portions of Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Ohio. For more information, please visit www.shentel.com.
CONTACTS:
Shenandoah Telecommunications, Inc.
Jim Volk
Senior Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer
540-984-5990
Jim.Volk@emp.shentel.com
Or
John Nesbett/Jennifer Belodeau
IMS Investor Relations
203-972-9200
jnesbett@institutionalms.com