On MP3.com: Interview with Paul Oakenfold

NTELOS Holdings Q4 2007 Earnings Call Transcript

  • download
  • Print
  • Recommend
  • 1

2008-03-03 14:43:07.0

Tags: NTELOS Holdings Corp.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions). And we'll first go to Gaurav Jaitly from UBS.

Gaurav Jaitly UBS

Great. Thanks. Good morning, guys. Nice to hear, you're having a very solid first quarter on the Wireless business. Just a couple of questions, first on the guidance. I think you mentioned your bad debt expense for the year was 3.2% versus 2.7%, just wondering what it was third quarter versus fourth quarter and what you're assuming your bad debt is for 2008.

And then, secondly, on the Sprint side and the wholesale side, obviously Sprint's having a lot of issues and just based on your voice side, total revenue side you have been pretty flat on the wholesale revenue side for the past two, three quarters here. Just wondering what your initial thoughts are on Sprint's new plans. They could obviously have a tough time for the first half of next year as well. When do you expect to exceed that $8 million minimum at this point?

And then, I am just curious why you would not be announcing that you're accelerating the $3 million additional expense to get to the 98% threshold for the EV-DO build. I am just curious why you would not be going ahead with that or what’s holding you back from announcing that today? Thank you.

Jim Quarforth

Okay. I'll start with the Sprint questions and then Michael will give you comments on the bad debt. Soon I have got all the questions written down here. I guess from our perspective, the reason Sprint has been flat the last two quarters has just been because the actual change in billing rates in July of '07, in both voice and data calculate to a billed amount less than the $8 million a month minimum, and the concepts there in the contract was to incent one, give Sprint competitive rates, where they can achieve the margin and be incented to grow the business but at the same time, set a $8 million minimum or a minimum higher than the current build rate to incent them to grow the business, so they can effectively reduce our cost structure.

So they have been growing into that $8 million minimum. I think on a previous call, we had projected that they would pass over, cross over the $8 million minimum in March of this year. I think based on the slowdown that we've seen on the voice side, in particular that we're now projecting that to be in July of this year.

TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic
What do you think?
The following tags are supported in BNET comments: <b></b> <i></i> <u></u> <pre></pre>
You are currently a guest | Login?
advertisement
Recommended Business Articles
advertisement