T-Mobile is one of the most powerful players on mobile markets and it is getting stronger by the day. We have been watching closely and waiting for the challenging moment when T-Mobile would outgrow Sprint as the no. 3 carrier in the US, in terms of total subscribers. The two carriers have been involved in a tight battle, inching closer and closer in recent quarters. After long trials and tribulations, it seems that T-Mobile has finally managed to score a successful result.
According to the latest reports, the T-Mobile victory couldn’t be clearer. Sprint just comes from reporting the results for the first quarter of its present fiscal year, which ended approximately one month ago, on June 30. Figures reveal a total of 675.000 connections during the quarter, and the number includes 310.000 new postpaid subscribers, 731.000 wholesale and affiliate adds and 368.000 prepaid losses. Overall, Sprint had 56.8 million total connections, at the end of the quarter. In comparison, T-Mobile had 58, 9 million total subscribers.
This is quite a victory for T-Mobile that went through a merger initiative and has struggled for years to keep its position steady on the markets.
The battle does not end here, as the results underscore progress in the slow but steady turnaround by Sprint, as it aims to revitalize its activity in the middle of an increasingly aggressive competitive field. Sprint is now working on improving the quality of its network and maintain the brutality of its prices, even though competitors amp up the pressure. However, progress has been seen. The company has already improved the quality of its phone calls and the reliability of its texting but the data speeds still lag behind the other national carriers. An effect of that could be the new surprising chart, which propelled T-Mobile directly on the number three spot.
Statistics further show that Sprint’s fiscal Q1 revenues declined 9% year over year, to $7 billion as its average revenue per subscriber is on constant downfall. The organization reported a quarterly loss of $20 million, effectively reversing its $23 million profit from last year’s fiscal first quarter.
Sprint has lost 12.000 phone customers in the July quarter, the first of its fiscal year, although it was far narrower than the 150.000 lost customers that had been projected.
On the other hand, T-Mobile has managed to bring an addition of 2.1 million net new customers, and more than 1 million T-Mobile branded customers, who pay at the end of the month as postpaid subscribers. T-Mobile has also done a great job in posting a stronger-than-expected profit in the period, in spite of the mentioned growth. It is now clearer than ever that T-Mobile overtakes Sprint as the number three carrier.
Image Source: money.cnn.com
