Amp’d nearing 200,000 customers

Amp’d Mobile today reported adding 84,000 customers new customers in the first quarter, bringing Amp’d Mobile close to the 200,000 subscriber mark and even exceeding its gross additions for the holiday quarter.

Amp’d added 70,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter, fueled by Christmas sales and new distribution contracts with Circuit City and Best Buy, but it fell short of its goal of 150,000 subscribers by the end of the year. Amp’d doesn’t reveal its exact subscriber base or net additions each quarter, preferring to list gross additions and overall subscriber approximations. Still Amp’d has doubled its subscriber base twice over in the last two quarters.

Its newer prepaid services also had more of an impact in the quarter, rising from 11% of the Amp’d subscriber base in Q4 to 16%, but it has little effect on its high revenue-per-user intake. Amp’d reported ARPU in excess of $100 a month, almost double of the Tier I carriers’ average ARPU, and data ARPUs of more than $30 a month. The content and entertainment-focused MVNO said it is still enjoying high rates of video and multimedia downloads, and in fact is taking that content overseas, launching Amp’d portals with other carriers.