T-Mobile Q3 results show customer shift from contracts
updated 05:06 am EST, Thu November 8, 2012
T-Mobile has issued its third quarterly report for the year, which shows a shift in its customer base from contracts to prepaid services. Although the company's customer base shows a total of 160,000 more customers thanks to the iPhone 5 launch, the higher-revenue postpaid customer base has dropped by 492,000. This reduced the Average Revenue Per User to $42.78, over seven percent lower year-on-year.
Total revenues hit $4.9 billion, marginally down from the $5.2 billion earned in Q3 2012. Profits were reported as $1.2 billion for the quarter, up from the $207 million in the second quarter, though this does not take into account an $8.1 billion charge from the merger of T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS.
While the merger will provide a short-term financial stumbling block, the company is looking on the bright side. CEO of Deutsche Telekom René Obermann said "The combination of T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS will durther depen the Company's LTE spectrum position in key metropolitan areas and provide a path to an at least 20 by 20 MHz LTE deployment in 90-percent of the top 25 US markets."
Other highlights of the report include the launch of HSPA+ on 1900 PCS spectrum in Las Vegas and Kansas City, followed by Washington DC, Baltimore, and Houston; the continued work on the company's $4 billion 4G network modernization plan, and that the company is on track to achieve $900 million in annual gross cost savings through its Reinvent program.
