It used to be that Verizon and AT&T could happily divvy up new subscribers every quarter while perpetual losers T-Mobile and Sprint would see their subscriber numbers shrink. Slowly but sure, however, T-Mobile’s “Uncarrier” campaign has helped reignite its growth and has made things significantly less comfortable for America’s two largest wireless carriers.
Consumer Intelligence Research Partners has come out with a new report showing that T-Mobile’s share of new subscribers grew faster than any other carrier over the first quarter of 2014. T-Mobile still only had the third-highest overall share of new subscribers at 15%, but this still marked an increase of two percentage points from the previous quarter when it snagged 13% of new subscribers. In contrast, Verizon’s share of new subscribers stayed flat at 35% while AT&T’s share shrunk slightly from 29% to 28% on the quarter. Sprint also saw its share of new subscribers tick upward on the quarter, going from 8% at the start of the quarter to 9% at the end of the quarter.
CIRP cofounder Mike Levin says the reason that the two smaller carriers showed the most growth on the quarter is simple: “Both T-Mobile and Sprint have led the market with novel and disruptive offerings, and consequently seem to attract new customers.”
