T-Mobile US, this week reported its first quarter 2015 results delivering strong customer growth and ended the quarter with 56.8 million total customers, adding 1.8 million net new adds, with an all-time record low 1.3% churn for branded postpaid. Its total revenues grew by 13.1% year-over-year on the back of continued growth in equipment sales revenues and service revenues.
With T-Mobile's results now out, has the Operator taken over Sprint as the 3rd largest mobile operator in the US after its claim last year to outdo its closest competitor? T-Mobile has clearly surpassed Sprint's 55.9 million customers mark reported for the end of February, but Sprint has yet to disclose its latest numbers, so the jury is still out as to who takes the third place in the US wireless market.
On its expansion plans, T-Mobile reported the continued investment in its 4G LTE network, with the company's total cash expenditures in the first quarter of 2015 reaching US$982 million, down from $1.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014 and up from $947 million in the first quarter of 2014. The Operator is rapidly deploying Wideband LTE, while at the same time rolling out 4G LTE on its 700 MHz A-Block and 1900 MHz PCS spectrum. Wideband LTE is currently available in 157 market areas and is expected to be available in more than 200 market areas by year-end 2015.
Commenting on its outlook for the rest of 2015, T-Mobile expects its branded postpaid net customers to increase by 3-3.5 million, reflecting huge upward revisions to its previous projections.
John Legere, President and CEO of T-Mobile
We’ve had eight consecutive quarters with more than one million total net customer additions proving that customers want value. We expect to once again capture all of the industry’s postpaid phone growth in Q1 and we’ve done it while delivering an all-time record low 1.3% churn. #WeWon’tStop.
