Q2 2005 IWO Holdings, Inc. Earnings Conference Call - Final.

Original Source: FD (FAIR DISCLOSURE) WIRE

OPERATOR: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the second quarter 2005 IWO Holdings Inc. earnings conference call. (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS). As a reminder, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today's call, Ms. Jody Burfening, from Lippert/Heilshorn. Please proceed, ma'am.

JODY BURFENING, IR, LIPPERT/HEILSHORN & ASSOCIATES: Good morning everyone, and thank you for joining us today. With us from management are Bret Cloward, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Richard Harris, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before starting the call I would like to read the Safe Harbor statement. This conference call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words anticipate, believe, estimate, expects, intends, may, plans, projects, will, would and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words.

Forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ possibly materially from what the Company now anticipates. Management has outlined the risks about the Company's business under the section entitled, "Risk Factors and Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Conditions and Results of Operations" in the most recent annual report on Form 10-K and the quarterly report on Form 10-Q to be filed later today. These reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission should be reviewed with great care because all forward-looking statements that management makes during this conference call or otherwise should be interpreted in light of the risks supplied in those reports. IWO is not under any obligation to update the guidance or any other statements discussed on this conference call, and investors should not assume that the Company would update any of these statements.

As a reminder, in February 2005 the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Delaware confirmed a prepackaged plan of reorganization for IWO holdings Inc. and its subsidiaries. Upon emerging from bankruptcy, IWO applied fresh start accounting, effective as of the date of the reorganization. As a result, the reported historical financial statements of IWO for the period prior to the reorganization are not directly comparable to those after the reorganization. The financial results of the Company before the reorganization are disclosed as the predecessor company, while post reorganization financial results are disclosed as successor company. In accordance with GAAP, the reported and historical financial statements of the predecessor company cannot be added to those of the successor company. However, for analysis purposes the Company has provided results of operations for the three and six months periods ending June 30, 2005 and 2004, as though IWO was a stand alone company from January 1, 2005. With that I would now like to turn the call over to Brett. Go ahead please.

BRET CLOWARD, PRESIDENT, CEO, IWO HOLDINGS, INC.: Good morning everyone. We would like to thank you for joining us for IWO's second quarter conference call. I will begin by discussing some highlights for the quarter and then have Rich review the Company's financial performance in detail. We will then open the call for questions.

IWO posted solid results this quarter. Total revenue was 51.6 million, an increase of nearly 11% over last year, and historically our highest revenue quarter. In addition, EBITDA was 9.3 million for the quarter versus adjusted EBITDA net of restructuring expense of 6.6 million for the second quarter of 2004, an increase of almost 41%. We accomplished this while completing our transition to a fully independent Company.

I am pleased to announce that we have now totally separated from US Unwired, and successfully completed the transition period on schedule on June 9. We worked hard to insure that IWO's operations were ready to go live during this period. And I am proud to say that everything went as planned.

We hired additional support staff, brought new systems online, transferred all historical data, and implemented back office departments, while maintaining a transparent and seamless operation with our customers. In short, we have accomplished a lot in a very brief period of time. I want to thank our senior management, the transition team, and our field staff for the focus and dedication to objectives that enabled these accomplishments. The IWO team looks forward to continuing our momentum and improving both financial and operational results.

Net additions and churn this quarter were impacted as anticipated by the end of the US Unwired proprietary Chat Pak prepaid program. As we shared with you on our first quarter earnings call, we made the strategic decision to discontinue the uneconomic Chat Pak program and align with Sprint's products and services in our markets. This migration was completed as of May 31.

IWO total ending subscribers decreased by 5,485 from the prior quarter. Net of migrated Chat Pak customers, our postpaid net additions were 4,870 versus 3,743 in last year's quarter. Our total postpaid net additions, including migrations, were 7,763 during the quarter. We migrated approximately 30% of the prepaid subscribers to postpaid plans in line with our expectations.

As I mentioned last quarter, we are committed to the increasing EBITDA by acquiring and retaining quality customers, by expanding distribution and network coverage, and improving performance, increasing ARPU by increasing average MRC and future take rates, and lowering churn by increasing customer satisfaction and getting customers signed to contracts. We're making progress on those objectives. …