T-Mobile Added Around Half a Million 5G Home Internet Customers
T-Mobile continued its run of positive quarterly reports with more mobile, broadband and home wireless internet subscribers.
T-Mobile had another positive quarter, adding more than a million and a half subscribers across mobile and internet services while leading its rivals on growing its 5G home internet customer base.
The biggest gains were in mobile, the carrier said during its third-quarter earnings call. T-Mobile said it saw a net increase of 854,000 postpaid phone subscribers, a metric of success the industry uses to forecast dependable revenue, while its network now reaches 250 million people with its baseline Ultra Capacity 5G.
T-Mobile noted that the company is rapidly moving toward standalone 5G, though the carrier didn't say exactly when its 5G service would stop relying on its 4G LTE network. "5G is more and more becoming the network," Mike Katz, T-Mobile chief marketing officer, said during the call.
The carrier's internet business also racked up more customers, reporting a net increase of 578,000 subscribers, which were "primarily solely fixed wireless access," according to T-Mobile. That's still likely higher than the 342,000 net added subscribers for Verizon's fixed wireless internet service this quarter (of which 234,000 were consumer subscribers), giving T-Mobile the edge for expanding its 5G home internet customer base this quarter.
Though T-Mobile is largely offering home broadband nationwide over its wireless network, it's been exploring a fiber offering, including running a trial in New York City. The carrier didn't break out how many users are on each broadband service.
"If there are opportunities that could maximize our growth and further strengthen our position in this industry, we'll be open-minded," the company said in a statement.
T-Mobile reported service revenue of $15.4 billion, a growth of 4% year over year, though that broke down to 40 cents of diluted earnings per share, a 27% decrease from the same period last year. The carrier attributed that to shutting down its 3G network and other costs related to T-Mobile's merger with Sprint, which was finalized over two years ago, and losses from the upcoming sale of T-Mobile's wireline business. But shareholders still fared better than the 4 cents per share that Yahoo analysts predicted.
T-Mobile stocks were up more than 4% in after-hours trading.