ATLANTA (AP) - Cingular Wireless LLC, the nation's largest cell phone 
provider, said Thursday it more than tripled its third quarter profits on a 
lower customer turnover rate and strong sales.

The Atlanta-based joint venture of BellSouth Corp. and AT&T Inc. said it 
earned a record $847 million profit for the three months ending Sept. 30, 
compared with $222 million for the same period a year ago.

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The growth was driven by 1.4 million net subscriber additions, compared with 
867,000 in the same quarter last year. At the same time, monthly churn --  
the rate at which customers switch to other providers -- settled at 1.8 
percent, compared with 2.3 percent in the year-ago period.

Ralph de la Vega, the company's chief operating officer, called the results 
a "turning point," but warned churn could rise again as Cingular converts 
about 6 percent of its customer base to a newer technology.

Cingular has been pushing to convert its entire customer base from older 
technologies to the globally dominant technology called GSM so it can get 
its entire customer base on one signal. Roughly 94 percent of its customers 
are now on the system, the company reported.

"We have a great plan, we're executing it well and we're seeing the 
results," de la Vega said.

The company's revenue in the quarter rose to $9.55 billion, compared with 
$8.7 billion recorded in the same quarter a year ago. Its subscriber base 
grew to 58.7 million, a year-over-year increase of 6.4 million.

For the first nine months of the year, Cingular said it earned $1.7 billion, 
compared with $129 million in the same period a year ago. Nine-month revenue 
rose 8.5 percent to $27.7 billion, compared with $25.58 billion recorded in 
the same period a year ago.

"Our work is not yet done in bringing even better results, services, and 
capabilities to our customers," said Stan Sigman, the company's president 
and CEO.

Cingular's name will likely be phased out with the completion of AT&T's 
$79.3 billion acquisition of Atlanta-based BellSouth, which is expected to 
close by the end of the year.

The deal was approved by the Justice Department earlier this month, but a 
vote on the buyout by the Federal Communications Commission was delayed 
until Nov. 3 after two Democrat commissioners asked for time to study 
last-minute concessions offered by the companies.

Regardless of the outcome of the merger, de la Vega said it won't likely 
cause an immediate jolt in the company's performance.

"I think you'll see a very slow and deliberate transition for Cingular to 
make sure we don't disrupt the very important fourth quarter," he said.

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