US Cellular says data traffic surged 20-25% in Q2 because of Covid-19

The stay-at-home orders that were widespread in April due to the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a surge in data traffic for regional operator US Cellular. The company reported that data traffic on its network increased 20% to 25%. 

Despite the decreased traffic to its stores because of the pandemic – US Cellular estimates traffic to stores was down 35% —the company’s key metrics remained resilient in the second quarter. US Cellular reported total operating revenues of $973 million for the quarter, which is about the same as it reported in second quarter 2019. Service revenues were $753 million, which is down 1% compared to the same period in 2019. The regional operator managed to gain 12,000 postpaid net adds for the quarter. Part of this increase was attributed to connected devices. The operator said it added 9,000 connected devices for the quarter, which was likely due to people buying hotspots and routers as the demand for remote connectivity increased because of the pandemic. Postpaid smartphone churn for the company was 0.71% and overall churn was 0.89%.