Number four wireless player T-Mobile is making all the right moves given its quarterly results boasting 2.4 million new customers, which includes 1.3 million branded postpaid customers gained.
It's the first time ever T-Mobile has added more than 2 million net additions in a quarter and it's the carrier's fourth consecutive quarter with 1 million additions. A company press release claims it's now the "fastest growing" wireless player.
"A year ago I promised that we would bring change to what I called this arrogant US wireless industry. We are delivering on that promise and our results reflect the growing customer revolution that we've ignited," said John Legere, president and CEO, in a release Thursday.
"We are now approaching 50 million customers, added 2.4 million net new customers in the first quarter alone, and posted our fourth quarter of consecutive service revenue growth, while once again adding more net new postpaid customers than the rest of the industry combined," he said.
One report claims T-Mobile added more new customers in the first quarter than Verizon and AT&T combined. Analysts had expected just under a million new customers for T-Mobile.
"T-Mobile's current subscriber momentum is undeniable," Craig Moffett, founder of research firm MoffettNathanson, said. "Competitively, the change is mind-boggling."
But as sports aficionados will relate, pain is a big part of a gain and for T-Mobile the pain was a hefty cost tied to customer acquisitions.
The big growth spurs comes as Sprint inches closer to trying to acquire T-Mobile. Published reports claim SoftBank, which owns about 80 percent of Sprint, is aiming to make an official acquisition move by early summer.
The robust new customer base news also comes as T-Mobile is trying to inch closer to wireless leaders Verizon and AT&T.
T-Mobile initiated aggressive pricing and product strategies in the last year, most notably reimbursing users' early termination fees if they switched over to T-Mobile. T-Mobile said the program has enjoyed "unprecendented" customer uptake and is responsible for 21 percent of the gross adds in the first quarter.
The second quarter may likely bode very similar given T-Mobile launched three new pricing plan programs last month and eliminated domestic overage charges.
T-Mobile now boasts 49.1 million users and the first quarter brought a record low postpaid churn rate of 1.5 percent. The wireless carrier expects between 2.8 and 3.3 million branded postpaid net additions this year.
