NEW YORK (AP) - T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the
country, said Thursday it added 981,000 customers in the first quarter, which
along with an acquisition brought its total to 30.8 million.
T-Mobile USA completed its acquisition of SunCom Wireless in February, which
added 1.1 million subscribers in the southeastern United States, Puerto Rico and
the U.S. Virgin Islands.
T-Mobile USA's growth means it is doing better than the next largest
carrier, Sprint Nextel Corp., which has been losing subscribers and had 53.8
million subscribers at the end of last year. Sprint has yet to report for the
first quarter.
The largest carriers are adding subscribers slightly faster than T-Mobile.
Verizon Wireless gained 1.5 million subscribers in the first quarter, while AT&T
Inc. added 1.3 million and remained the biggest carrier.
Compared to Verizon Wireless and AT&T, T-Mobile keeps adding more prepaid
customers, which are less profitable. A quarter of the customers were prepaid in
the first quarter.
T-Mobile USA is a subsidiary of Europe's biggest telecom, Deutsche Telekom
AG, which reported its quarterly earnings Thursday. The U.S. division had $5.19
billion in revenue, accounting for a sizeable chunk of Deutsche Telekom's
overall 15 billion euros ($23.14 billion) in sales.
Average monthly revenue per user was $51 in the U.S., down from $52 in the
previous quarter, mainly because contract customers were racking up fewer extra
charges.
T-Mobile has been trailing the other carriers in rolling out cellular
broadband, or "3G" abilities. But this week, it said it has turned on a 3G
network in New York City, and 20 to 25 other major markets will follow by the
end of the year. As yet, few phones can take advantage of this network.
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