All eyes are on T-Mobile and Sprint as the two are planning a merger, but you won’t hear either company talk about it due to terms of the deal still being finalized and the government waiting to investigate. That’s why T-Mobile shared its financial results for the third quarter of 2017 through a pre-recorded video. John Legere opened by saying there’s too much speculation going on that would take away from a strong quarter.
Growth in revenue and subscribers isn’t slowing down, and the magenta-colored network also continues growing.
More than 1.3 million total net additions were made in the third quarter, which means the carrier has added more than 1 million in every quarter for the last 4.5 years. Around 17 percent of them were prepaid customers, and there are now 70.7 million total customers with T-Mobile. They helped T-Mobile generate $550 million in net income from $10 billion in total revenue. Compared to the same quarter in 2016, net income rose by 50%.
Although most people shop online these days, T-Mobile remains committed to in-person experiences. It’d like to have 3,000 new retail stores built by the end of 2017. So far 2,500 locations belonging to T-Mobile and MetroPCS have been opened year-to-date. As the holidays come around, T-Mobile aims to have plenty retail stores ready to sell service and hardware.
T-Mobile credits the continued success to its ability to create more value for customers, such as including Netflix with its family plan, and the expansion of its already-strong network. Multiple studies have found T-Mobile’s network bests or at least matches Verizon’s in different areas. With that being part of T-Mobile’s advertisements, customers from other carriers are flocking to T-Mobile.
The network built by T-Mobile covers 316 million people in the United States today, and 321 million should be covered by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the 600MHz network that cost the carrier $8 billion should have 1.2 million square miles cleared in 2017.
Looking ahead, the Un-carrier movement will remain intact. T-Mobile’s head honcho finished the earnings report by thanking employees and customers for forcing “dramatic change” in the wireless industry. His last words, aimed at customers and competitors, were simple: “We won’t stop.”
