T-Mobile USA Reports 32.8 Million Customers
T-Mobile USA, the U.S. operation of Deutsche Telekom AG’s Mobile
Communications business, today (Jan. 29) announced fourth quarter and
full year 2008 customer results. In the fourth quarter of 2008, it added
621,000 net new customers compared to 670,000 in the third quarter of
2008 and 951,000 in the fourth quarter of 2007.
T-Mobile USA’s gross customer addition growth in 2008 compared to 2007
was offset by higher blended churn. Net new contract customer additions
amounted to 267,000 in the fourth quarter of 2008, or 43% of total net
new customer additions, compared to 293,000 or 44% in the third quarter
of 2008 and 733,000 or 77% in the fourth quarter of 2007. Contract
customers include FlexPay contract customers.
Prepaid
net additions were 355,000 in the fourth quarter, compared to 377,000 in
the third quarter of 2008, and up from 218,000 in the fourth quarter of
2007. Prepaid customers include FlexPay no-contract customers.
The
company’s launch of 3G services was combined with the strengthening of
the converged device offering during 2008. With the successful launch of
the T-Mobile G1 with Google and the Samsung Behold, both 3G converged
devices, nearly 40% of devices sold to contract customers in the fourth
quarter of 2008 (including both upgrades and new customers) were
converged devices, of which more than half were 3G enabled.
For the
year ended December 31, 2008, T-Mobile USA added more than 4.07 million
net new customers, 2.94 million organic net new customers and 1.13
million acquired as part of the SunCom Wireless, Inc acquisition in
February 2008.
This
compares to 3.64 million net new customers added in 2007. Net contract
customer additions in 2008 amounted to 1.8 million, 62% of the total
organic customer additions in the year – down from 74% in 2007. Contract
customers comprised 82% of T-Mobile USA’s 32.8 million customer base at
the end of 2008, compared to 83% in the third quarter of 2008 and fourth
quarter of 2007.
According to the company, by the end of 2008, 128 million mobile
customers were served by the mobile communication segments of the
Deutsche Telekom group — 32.8 million by T-Mobile USA — all via a common
technology platform based on GSM, a digital wireless standard.
