New subs bolster T-Mobile’s quarter, again

T-Mobile USA reported a strong Q2, which the company attributed to growth of its subscriber base, outgrowing its direct competitors AT&T and Verizon.

Wei Shi

July 30, 2021

2 Min Read
t-mobile 5g map

T-Mobile USA reported a strong Q2, which the company attributed to growth of its subscriber base, outgrowing its direct competitors AT&T and Verizon.

T-Mobile USA reported that it added 1.3 million postpaid wireless customers, including 627,000 postpaid phone users. This addition is slightly smaller than AT&T’s 789,000 but way ahead of the 275,000 new postpaid phones uses gained by Verizon in the same quarter.

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Source: T-Mobile USA

In terms of financial performance, the total revenue reached $20 billion, a 13% year-over-year increase, while net income grew by eight times over the same quarter last year, reaching $978 million. Core Adjusted EBITDA increased by 7%, “best growth in industry”, the company claimed.

This is not the first time we have heard T-Mobile attributing strong business performance to subscriber base growth, especially after the Sprint merger came through. T-Mobile expected to see the subs growth momentum continue, resulting in a raised guidance for the full year 2021. The operator now expects postpaid net customer additions to be between 5.0 million and 5.3 million, up from its prior guidance of 4.4 million to 4.9 million.

“Stellar postpaid customer gains and industry-leading service revenue growth translated into industry-best growth in profitability and cash flow, and drove another beat and raise quarter – all fueled by unprecedented synergies that only T-Mobile can deliver,” Mike Sievert, T-Mobile’s CEO, said in the announcement. “As we capitalize on our 5G leadership, it’s increasingly clear that our unmatched network, outstanding value and customer-centric experiences are setting the Un-carrier apart from everyone else.”

In addition to bringing its customer base to the merged new T-Mobile, the mid-band spectrum in Sprint’s possession has proved valuable, giving T-Mobile a first mover’s advantage in rolling out 5G on C-band before AT&T and Verizon getting their share of the spoils through the C-band auction at the beginning of the year.

Dubbed “Ultra Capacity 5G” by T-Mobile, 5G on mid-band is covering 165 million people in the U.S now “with average speeds of 350 Mbps”, and the operator targets to cover 200 million people by the end of the year. The operator’s 5G network on lower band is already covering “305 million people and 1.7 million square miles — more geographic coverage than Verizon and AT&T combined”, T-Mobile reminds us.

About the Author

Wei Shi

Wei leads the Telecoms.com Intelligence function. His responsibilities include managing and producing premium content for Telecoms.com Intelligence, undertaking special projects, and supporting internal and external partners. Wei’s research and writing have followed the heartbeat of the telecoms industry. His recent long form publications cover topics ranging from 5G and beyond, edge computing, and digital transformation, to artificial intelligence, telco cloud, and 5G devices. Wei also regularly contributes to the Telecoms.com news site and other group titles when he puts on his technology journalist hat. Wei has two decades’ experience in the telecoms ecosystem in Asia and Europe, both on the corporate side and on the professional service side. His former employers include Nokia and Strategy Analytics. Wei is a graduate of The London School of Economics. He speaks English, French, and Chinese, and has a working knowledge of Finnish and German. He is based in Telecom.com’s London office.

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