T-Mobile USA Reports Third Quarter Subscriber Gains

Mobile share will shift, based on mergers

T-Mobile USA reported third quarter 2011 service revenues of $4.67 billion, slightly down from $4.71 billion in the third quarter of 2010, but net customer additions of 126,000 in the third quarter of 2011, a 176,000 improvement from net customer losses in the second quarter of 2011 of 50,000 and slightly down from 137,000 net customer additions in the third quarter of 2010. T-Mobile Gains Subs

Given the distractions of the still-unsettled acquisition of the company by AT&T, that is a reasonable performance. T-Mobile USA attributed the gains to its smart phone offers, value pricing, a wider selection of 4G devices and the 4G network itself.

T-Mobile USA served 33.7 million customers at the end of third quarter of 2011, compared to 33.6 million customers at the end of second quarter 2011 and 33.8 million customers at the end of third quarter 2010. 


The gains came from prepaid customer additions of  312,000 in the third quarter of 2011, an improvement from 231,000 net prepaid customer additions in the second quarter of 2011, and 190,000 net prepaid customer additions in the third quarter of 2010.

Post-paid contract customer losses, including connected devices were 186,000 in the third quarter of 2011, an improvement from 281,000 net contract customer losses in the second quarter of 2011. Net contract customer losses were 54,000 in the third quarter of 2010.


Those results point up one key element of T-Mobile USA positioning in the broader mobile market. With AT&T and Verizon Wireless claiming leadership of the "premium" positions, and several firms including Leap Wireless and MetroPCS claiming the "value" positions, both T-Mobile USA and Sprint must fight to figure out where they fit. 


In a sense, both T-Mobile USA and Sprint are being squeezed from the top and the bottom, in terms of their segments in the market.