EarthLink Adds 248,000 Subscribers in Q4

EarthLink added 248,000 net subscribers in Q4 2003 and ended the year with approximately 5.2 million paying subscribers, an increase of 219,000 subscribers, or 4.4%, from a year ago. During the quarter, the company added 108,000 broadband subscribers, giving it a total of approximately 1.1 million broadband customers, up 36.2% from a year ago.



EarthLink also added 143,000 total narrowband subscribers in the quarter, which included 129,000 net new subscribers from PeoplePC Online, the company's value-priced narrowband service. EarthLink ended the year with approximately 4.0 million total narrowband subscribers, a decrease of 1.3% from a year ago. Total narrowband subscribers included 424,000 PeoplePC Online subscribers, up from 68,000 at the beginning of the year.



Monthly subscriber churn was 4.1% in the quarter, up from the prior year quarter's rate of 3.6%. The higher churn rate was attributed primarily to the continued migration of premium narrowband subscribers to other providers' broadband access services and the significant increase during the quarter in the number of new subscribers, which typically have high early-life churn.



EarthLink reported total revenues of $348.6 million in the quarter, an increase of 0.2% from Q4 2002. Net income for the quarter was $10.7 million, or $0.07 per share, an improvement from a net loss of ($36.9) million, or ($0.24) per share, in the prior year quarter. http://www.earthlink.net