Virgin Mobile USA announced its fourth-quarter and 2008 subscriber data today, following the same update yesterday from MetroPCS.

Virgin said its quarterly net additions were 216,000, with churn of 4.8%. The company now has a total of 5.38 million subscribers.

“Our new offers have helped lead to strong customer growth and improved retention as consumers look for value and flexibility during uncertain economic times," CEO Dan Schulman said. “Our hybrid plans continue to grow in popularity, accounting for over 50% of our gross adds in October and November and 29% of our subscriber base at the end of November. We expect the growth of these plans to lead to continued improvement in ARPU trends in the fourth quarter of 2008,” he said in a prepared statement.

MetroPCS said its quarterly net additions were 520,000, with churn of 5.1%. Its total subscribers number 5.4 million.

“We are very pleased to report fourth-quarter net additions of 520,000, the highest quarterly net additions in company history. During the fourth quarter and for the full year 2008, our strong subscriber growth continues to prove the resiliency of the MetroPCS business model in the midst of the current unprecedented economic environment,” CEO Roger Linquist stated. “This year, for the sixth consecutive year, we have grown our subscriber base by 35% or higher. We are excited about our future growth potential given current landline replacement trends.”  

Another prepaid specialist, Leap Wireless, said yesterday it has signed a managed services contract with Convergys for a new billing system. Leap and its subsidiary Cricket Communications previously were customers of VeriSign, officials said.

Prepaid systems are increasingly popular and are likely to be adopted by traditional postpaid carriers this year.