T-Mobile Story from FierceMobile

1. T-Mobile USA crosses 30M subs
Comment | Forward to a friend

T-Mobile USA reported first-quarter net income of $462 million, up from $315 million a year ago--service revenues increased 14 percent to $4.57 billion from $3.99 billion in Q1 2007, growth the operator attributed to an increase of contract customers.

Net Subscribers: T-Mobile USA added 981,000 new customers during the quarter, crossing the 30 million subscriber mark.

Churn: The carrier's average monthly rate of churn fell to 1.7 percent during the quarter, down from 1.9 percent a year ago.

ARPU: Average revenue per user (ARPU) slipped to $51, a $1 decline from last year.

Data services revenues were $760 million in the quarter, accounting for 16.6 percent of ARPU or $8.50 per customer, up from 15.8 percent/$8.20 in the fourth quarter of 2007 and 14.3 percent/$7.50 in Q1 2007. The company said messaging revenues remain the primary driver behind data growth: The operator reported that SMS and MMS swelled to 33 billion in the first quarter of 2008, compared to 24 billion in the previous quarter and 16 billion a year earlier. T-Mobile USA cited the popularity of its myFaves unlimited rate plan as a major catalyst behind its messaging growth.

Technology Business Research analyst Ken Hyers noted that if the newly acquired 1.13 million SunCom subscribers are removed from T-Mobile's quarterly additions, year-to-year growth shrinks to only 14 percent, which is the slowest year-to-year subscriber growth yet for the carrier.

For more:
- read this release about T-Mobile USA's Q1 results