T-Mobile USA Inc. continued its strong customer growth trend, adding a record1.174 million net subscribers during the first quarter of this year, which topped both the 921,000 subscribers the carrier added during the first quarter of 2003 as well as the 1.015 million subscribers added during the final three months of last year. The carrier noted most the of the growth during the first quarter was from new postpaid customers who now comprise 89 percent of the carrier’s 14.3 million subscriber base, and it took 30 percent of net customer additions posted during the first quarter by the country’s six nationwide operators.
Customer churn remained steady and relatively high year-over-year at 3 percent, which T-Mobile USA attributed to a high number of customers reaching their one-year contract expirations, adding that it has been a net beneficiary of wireless local number portability.
Average revenue per user increased from $50 during the first quarter of 2003 to $54 this year, with nearly half of the increase related to a new 86-cent per month charge to postpaid customers related to government mandated programs and the counting of universal service fees. T-Mobile USA added that data services accounted for 4.5 percent of postpaid revenues during the first quarter compared with 3.5 percent during the fourth quarter of last year.
Cost per gross customer addition increased from $306 during the first quarter of 2003 to $326 this year, while the cash cost per user remained flat year over year at $23.
Total revenues also increased from $1.8 billion during the first quarter of 2003 to $2.6 billion this year, while net losses dropped from $216.2 million last year to $157.2 million this year.
