T-Mobile wasn’t just the first major carrier in 2014 to announce groundbreaking new initiatives such as rollover data plans and paying off rivals’ early termination fees. It also posted insanely high net customer additions for a carrier that some had written off after years of decline.
FROM EARLIER: T-Mobile just got AT&T to follow another of its ‘Un-carrier’ ideas
T-Mobile released its fourth-quarter earnings report on Wednesday and it puts an exclamation point on the huge year that the “Un-carrier” had in 2014. In total, T-Mobile added 8.3 million total customers last year, of which 4 million were branded postpaid phone subscribers. In the fourth quarter last year, T-Mobile added 2.1 million net subscribers along with 1 million postpaid phone subscribers.
The branded postpaid numbers are particularly important because postpaid phone subscribers deliver more average revenue per user than prepaid subscribers and also have lower churn rates. So while it wouldn’t be surprising to see T-Mobile add lots of prepaid customers given its aggressive push to market itself as a value carrier, it seems the company is attracting more lucrative subscribers as well.
What does this all mean going forward? Well, it likely means that T-Mobile will soon overtake Sprint for the third-most subscribers in the American wireless industry if it hasn’t already. And it means AT&T and Verizon are in for more childish trolling from T-Mobile CEO John Legere. All told, 2015 is shaping up to be an interesting year for the wireless industry.
