T-Mobile Surpasses Sprint as Third Largest US Carrier with 59 Million Subscribers

[dgstorm]

It looks like it's official now. In nearly every metric that counts (and in the single most important metric) T-Mobile has now passed Sprint to become the number three mobile carrier in the US. T-Mobile has grown to a whopping 59 Million subscribers, compared to 56.8 Million for Sprint.

In fact, the growth has been quite astonishing. T-Mobile added almost a million customers every quarter for the last nine quarters, and they even added 2.1 million in just the last three months. Here's a breakdown of more of the numbers from T-Mo's latest financial call,

• 2.1 million total net customer additions, up 41% year-over-year -- 9th consecutive quarter with over 1 million
• More than 1 million branded postpaid net customer additions, up 11% year-over-year -- 4th consecutive quarter with over 1 million
• 760,000 branded postpaid phone net customer additions, up 31% year-over-year -- demonstrating a continued focus on the most valuable customer segment of the market
• 178,000 branded prepaid net customer additions, up 75% year-over-year -- growing the industry’s biggest and best prepaid brands
• 1.3% branded postpaid phone churn -- continued record-low churn and a year-over-year reduction of 16 basis points

Perhaps it was only a matter of time. Now it looks like Sprint will need to get "the eye of the tiger" to regain their third place crown. Can they do it?

Source: T-Mobile News

 

[johnomaz]

I've also noticed in my area that the coverage has gotten better in areas that there was no coverage or very weak coverage too. They aren't just acquiring customers, but also expanding.

 

[SILVER COUPE]

I'm one of those new customers. So far I'm satisfied with the coverage, and I like the free music streaming.

 

[johnomaz]

I'm one of those new customers. So far I'm satisfied with the coverage, and I like the free music streaming.

If I include that in my data usage, I'm close to 10 gigs a month. but without it, I'm down around 1.5-2 gigs a month. I do have the unlimited LTE now so its not that big of a deal but if I ever decide to change that, its nice to have.

 

[jackiescivic]

They put 4 billion into their network last year. I'm not surprised they passed Sprint

Sent from my Verizon G4

 

[Raydee35]

I work as a building inspector and I see sprint and team mobile upgrading and putting up new towers all the time here in NY.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

YAY! Go T Go! Haha! I miss having T-mobile and I really like what they've been doing. If they don't keep gaining customers and building out their network, they're done. I don't want that. Wish we had them in my area. I'd jump off the big red boat in a heartbeat even if the coverage wasn't quite as good. Except I'd have to choose between ACTUALLY using t-mobile and going with Project Fi...

In any case, I'm glad that they're seeing growth in important areas. The big two need someone on their heels, even if there's still a huge gap between t-mo and at&t.

 

[mountainbikermark]

They put 4 billion into their network last year. I'm not surprised they passed Sprint

Sent from my Verizon G4

Unfortunately to those of us that travel more rural locations they used most of that to upgrade existing and very little into expansion. What used to be 2G only is now 4G LTE but what used to be dead is still dead. In too many huge portions of Virginia and West Virginia. I'd still be with them if not for that.

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[jackiescivic]

I'm sure they'll get there. When Sprint did their network upgrades it was the same thing.

Sent from my Verizon G4

 

[Ollie]

Sprint will be deploying thousands of new small cells and macro cell towers. It looks like they are not taking this lying down.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Sprint will be deploying thousands of new small cells and macro cell towers. It looks like they are not taking this lying down.

I'm happy about that too. The more both of these carriers build up their networks, the better my chance of Fi being worth a go in my area.

As I said earlier, this kind of competition can only be good for us as consumers. These two carriers have a long way to go to match even the #2 spot, but the fact that they're working on building up will hopefully mean we can eventually have better/more choices in out-lying areas.

 

[Mustang02]

Keep going! Eventually project fi will be worth my time.

Traveling without cell service sucks. Back in the day we had these things called pay phones if we need help on the road. Now they are almost all obsolete.

 

[Ollie]

I'm happy about that too. The more both of these carriers build up their networks, the better my chance of Fi being worth a go in my area.

As I said earlier, this kind of competition can only be good for us as consumers. These two carriers have a long way to go to match even the #2 spot, but the fact that they're working on building up will hopefully mean we can eventually have better/more choices in out-lying areas.

They have a two year plan. Now that Softbank's chairman finally feels like dumping some money into Sprint we should see some progress. I think he was banking on the TMO merger too much and got caught sleeping.

 

[wicked]

Yay for Tmo!

 

[LoneWolfArcher]

This is all a ploy by Sprint to get their merger with AT&T approved.