Virgin boosted by Helio in third quarter

Virgin Mobile’s second quarter results that the company is going through some tough times. Just a week after that announcement, though, they officially picked up Helio, which gave them a boost for the third quarter. Numbers weren’t great on the whole; they still lost subscribers and realized increased churn from last year. However, the situation was mitigated a bit by the acquisition of Helio. The company lost 3,267 customers total in the third quarter, far fewer than the 111,273 they lost in the second quarter. Clearly, Helio propped up these numbers. Virgin sees a bright fourth quarter, though, expecting net adds to be in the range of 60,000 to 100,000. That would be a boon for the company, reversing their negative gains from this year. Churn was the big killer. In times of economic slowdown, people might opt to ditch their cell phone service, and it seems that’s what Virgin realized. Churn was a staggering 5.5 percent, up from 4.9 percent in the third quarter 2007. However, it was actually lower than the second quarter, which saw a churn rate of 5.6 percent. As I said then, it’s not terrible for a company that doesn’t require you to sign a contract. This is going to be an interesting fourth quarter for cellular operators, especially prepaid ones like Virgin Mobile. They could see an increase in adds because of people downgrading from contract plans. Plus, there’s always the holiday rush. It could be the first step in turning the company around.]]>