T-Mobile USA scores 1 million new customers in first quarter, details to come…

T-Mobile USA Inc. posted a solid first quarter, bringing in 980,000 net new subscribers and outperforming analyst’ expectations, largely on the strength of its prepaid customer growth.
The company’s net customer additions were down slightly from the 1.04 million subscribers it gained in the first quarter of 2006, but increased from the 901,000 customers added during the fourth quarter of 2006. Postpaid customers made up 74% of first quarter 2007 customers, up from 70% during the prior year’s period. T-Mobile USA’s customer base was 84% postpaid at the end of the quarter.
T-Mobile USA’s total churn rate declined from 2.7% in 2006’s first quarter to 2.6%, while postpaid churn fell from 2.1% to 1.9% year-over-year.
The carrier also increased its average revenue per user from $51 to $52 year-over-year. The carrier’s data revenues continued to grow, hitting $7.50 per customer, up from $6.50 in the prior first quarter; part of the boost was due to T-Mobile’s inclusion of its Wi-Fi operations in its data service revenues. Strong messaging growth also contributed, the carrier said.
Despite T-Mobile USA’s performance, parent company Deutsche Telekom AG’s stock fell in trading on Wall Street due to a 60% decline in the European carrier’s profit for the first quarter. The decline was a result of large numbers of German customers leaving Deutsche Telekom’s wireline operations in that country.