T-Mobile's Growth Returns; Adds 1.1 Million Net New Customers

[dgstorm]

Sometimes it's just great to see the underdog come back from behind. That's what might be happening right now with T-Mobile. They are finally seeing a great deal of growth. Despite actually posting a small loss, they still managed to grab hold of 1.1 Million new (net) subscribers. In the company's first results as a publicly traded company, T-Mobile is doing remarkably well. It appears their new Uncarrier initiative is going according to plan. Here's a quick quote with more of the details,

The company revealed Wednesday that it added a net 1.1 million customers in the second quarter, with 688,000 (685,000 coming from phone customers) coming from its post-paid, or customers with a higher credit rating score that pay at the end of each month. That's the highest rate of growth among all of the national carriers this period. It added another 8.9 million customers from its acquisition of MetroPCS.

In total, the company ended the second quarter with 44 million customers. In the year-ago period, it lost a net 557,000 post-paid customers. For the full year, T-Mobile expects to add a net 1 million to 1.2 million post-paid customers, suggesting continued growth -- albeit at a slower pace -- for the rest of 2013.

That growth is coming at a cost. Even as revenue rose 27.5 percent to $6.23 billion -- above Wall Street expectations -- it swung to a loss of $16 million, compared with a year-earlier profit of $207 million.

T-Mobile's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization fell by 16 percent to $1.1 billion from a year ago. Excluding one-time items, adjusted earnings actually fell by 30 percent to $1.3 billion, largely because of the promotional expenses, higher customer growth and handset sales, and higher upgrade volumes.
T-Mobile expects full-year adjusted earnings, including the MetroPCS assets, to be between $5.2 billion and $5.4 billion.

Sound off if you are one of those folks who added to T-Mobile's bottom line.

Source: CNET

 

[kodiak799]

I'm not sure what is so appealing about their "uncarrier" plan. I think that growth would be mostly pricing driven. Although maybe it's a combination with not being tied-down to a contract that is encouraging people to trial the service. So we'll see in the next few quarters if they are able to hold onto their gains.

 

[kevsgroove]

I'm not sure what is so appealing about their "uncarrier" plan. I think that growth would be mostly pricing driven. Although maybe it's a combination with not being tied-down to a contract that is encouraging people to trial the service. So we'll see in the next few quarters if they are able to hold onto their gains.

I'd have to say the vast majority of buying decisions are price driven, and having said that, I paid full price for my S4 to maintain unlimited. If however, big red decides someday to either do away with unlimited or restructure to pricing so that it's less cost effective than another carrier, I'd have no hesitation in moving.

Funny thing is, from everyone I've talked to in the metro area the T-Moblie signal is as good as Verizon's. This past weekend I took my daughter and one of her volleyball teammates to a team BBQ down in a rural part of the Missouri. Her teammate has an iPhone 5 with T-Mobile and it switched over to AT&T, while both my S4 and my daughter's iPhone 4s struggled to maintain a signal. IMHO, the proof will eventually be in the pudding.

 

[kodiak799]

Funny thing is, from everyone I've talked to in the metro area the T-Moblie signal is as good as Verizon's.

T-Mo definitely has areas of good service, which works for people in those areas who don't travel much.

My phone is still first and foremost a phone, and then email for business. If VZW does away with unlimited plans I'll just adapt (I can easily get by with 2 gigs, but at times unlimited is nice), unless and until someone has national service rivaling the quality of VZW.

 

[Caesars]

I hopped on the bandwagon and must say....

everywhere I go has lte ;-)

GS4/iPhone5

 

[champaned_out]

i have 4 smartphones on verizon (2 have 2gig and 2 have the unlimited data) paying around 270-280 a month.... if we switch over to t-mo we can cut our bill down to $140 plus taxes and reg. fees which sounds great... ill be getting activating a prepaid account for a month to test their network out since i drive all over southern california for my work

 

[johnomaz]

T-Mo definitely has areas of good service, which works for people in those areas who don't travel much.

This is why my wife switched to TMo in June and I'll be going there too when my contract expires with AT&T (I may sell my S3 and pay the early termination fee before that). To me, the benefit is that I can pay off my phone early if I choose ($100 a month is easy) and then my bill goes down. On VZW and ATT, the bill never goes down even if I use my phone for 5 years. I am paying for a device that was originally subsidized, but after paying for the contract term (which would pay off the device), I keep paying the same amount AND for WAY less data. I dont' use a lot of data, but I did one month and had to sit for 2 weeks with my data turned off. Also, if I want texting on ATT, I have to pay $20 a month more. WTF is up with that. Its texting. Its like charging a fee to use a salt shaker at a restaurant. TMobile's texting is included. I am fortunate that TMobile has good service in my area and I will have LTE here by the end of the year. LTE is currently about 15 miles away from me and blazing fast from Tmobile.

 

[VirtualCLD]

I'm not sure what is so appealing about their "uncarrier" plan. I think that growth would be mostly pricing driven. Although maybe it's a combination with not being tied-down to a contract that is encouraging people to trial the service. So we'll see in the next few quarters if they are able to hold onto their gains.

BTW, this is what is so appealing about their "uncarrier" plan:

To me, the benefit is that I can pay off my phone early if I choose ($100 a month is easy) and then my bill goes down. On VZW and ATT, the bill never goes down even if I use my phone for 5 years. I am paying for a device that was originally subsidized, but after paying for the contract term (which would pay off the device), I keep paying the same amount AND for WAY less data. I dont' use a lot of data, but I did one month and had to sit for 2 weeks with my data turned off.

Now I have not tested T-Mobile for a while (~5 years) and there wasn't much difference in coverage between them and AT&T, but there was a definite difference. When I switched from AT&T to Verizon, I think the coverage got a little worse, but I'm chalking that up to going from a feature phone where I cared about making a call to a smartphone where now I want high-speed data. In fact, I don't think I ever dropped a call for the two years I was on AT&T, but I occasionally get dropped calls with Verizon. I get a larger discount for Verizon through work and my wife is on Verizon so I don't plan to change anytime soon, but if T-Mobile's coverage has improved and continues improving, they might be worth a look.

 

[boidsonly]

My term with VZW was up in May. I plan to move to T-Mobile when they have a phone that appeals to me. I will be giving up my unlimited plan but I can get the same from T-Mobile for a whole lot less money. If it works well, the wife will follow shortly after. I have no problem selling our Note2/S3's and starting over-the new LG looks intriguing...