T-Mobile led the industry in several important categories during Q1
T-Mobile today announced that it added an industry-best 532,000 new postpaid phone net customer additions during the first quarter of 2024. On a year-over-year basis, that is a decline from the 538,000 reported by T-Mobile during Q1 of 2023. The good news is that the company's postpaid phone churn for the first three months of the year, at .86%, matched the lowest ever for any T-Mobile first quarter.
Postpaid net customer additions came to 1.2 million in the quarter and postpaid net account additions amounted to 218,000, both figures leading the industry in their respective categories. High-Speed Internet net customer additions of 405,000 also topped the industry taking T-Mobile over 5 million subscribers for the service.
Nearly 95% of T-Mobile's 5G network traffic is on the carrier's mid-band spectrum. Mid-band spectrum, such as the 2.5GHz airwaves that T-Mobile acquired in the Sprint acquisition and added to in subsequent transactions, offers faster data speed than low-band and travels longer distances than mmWave. 85% of 5G network traffic is carried on sites that offer all three spectrum tiers (low-band, mid-band, and mmWave).
95% of T-Mobile's 5G traffic runs over the company's mid-band spectrum
Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile said, "T-Mobile had a great start to 2024 with industry-leading growth in service revenues and profitability. Even as the rest of wireless saw moderated customer growth, our momentum continued thanks to our increasingly differentiated combination of the best value, best network, and best experiences that customers love. We’re excited about our path forward and our raised guidance for 2024 reflects our confidence in what's to come."
T-Mobile reported Q1 service revenue of $16.1 billion, up 4% year-over-year, and total revenue was $19.6 billion. The company reported $2.4 billion in net income, a 22% gain over net reported during Q1 of 2023. Diluted earnings per share, which includes shares that would be available if all convertible instruments were converted into equity, came to $2.00 which was a 27% year-over-year increase.
T-Mobile has raised its forecast for 2024 and now expects to add 5.2 million to 5.6 million subscribers compared to its previous estimate calling for a gain of 5 million to 5.5 million subscribers. During the conference call held following the release of Q1 earnings, Mike Katz, president of marketing, strategy and products at T-Mobile, told Reuters that over 60% of new customers are signing up to new plans such as Go5G Next and Go5G Plus. Those plans include free subscriptions for services such as Netflix and Apple TV+. "They are also the plans that are the most popular when existing customers are moving from their current rate plan to a new plan," says Katz.
The report was released after the stock stopped trading during the day's regular trading session. T-Mobile's shares closed in regular trading at $164.05 for a small 13-cent-a-share decline. In after-hours trading following the release of the report, T-Mobile's stock rose $1.15 or .70% to $165.20.
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