T-Mobile USA ended 2011 on a sour note as the carrier posted a marked increase in customer losses as well as the collapse of its planned acquisition by AT&T, both of which were somewhat related.
T-Mobile USA said it lost 526,000 customers during the fourth quarter of 2011, pushing its customer base down to 33.2 million total customers on its network. The customer defections were substantially greater than the 23,000 customers it lost during the fourth quarter of 2010 and reversed the positive gain of 126,000 subscribers during the third quarter of last year.
The customer losses were driven by its contract customer base, which lost 802,000 connections during the quarter, including the loss of 95,000 “connected devices” during the quarter. Prepaid customer growth did manage to grow year-over-year from 229,000 net additions in 2010 to 312,000 net additions last year, with the carrier noting it was serving 3.6 million indirect prepaid customers on its network at the end of 2011.
By comparison, T-Mobile USA’s larger rivals all posted customer gains during the fourth quarter, including 2.5 million net connection additions posted by AT&T Mobility; 1.1 million net additions posted by Sprint Nextel; and 969,000 net customer additions posted by Verizon Wireless; and
T-Mobile USA noted that the customer losses, especially on the postpaid side were due to the launch of the Apple iPhone 4S during the quarter by its larger rivals. T-Mobile USA hinted that the iPhone situation might be reversed in the future due to network initiatives that will see the operator harmonize its network technology and spectrum bands to that currently employed in the device.
Customer defections were also evident in the sharp increase in customer churn during the quarter, which surged from 3.5% during the third quarter of 2011 to 4% during the final three months of the year. The only bright spot for its churn results came from its prepaid operations, which dropped from 7.2% in Q3 to 6.8% in Q4. It should be noted that at 6.8% monthly churn T-Mobile USA was seeing more than 81% of its prepaid base eventually cancel services.
T-Mobile USA’s management noted that the uncertainty regarding the AT&T transaction also impacted customer results.
Average revenue per user remained steady at $46, with data services accounting for 31% of that total, up from 30% during the third quarter of the year.
T-Mobile USA cost per gross customer dropped year-over-year from $290 during the fourth quarter of 2010 to $270 in 2011, while its cash cost per user dipped from $24 in 2010 to $23 last year.
The flat ARPU levels along with the diminished customer base resulted in a dip in total revenues for the quarter from more than $5.3 billion in 2010 to just under $5.2 billion last year. The carrier did also manage to lower operating expenses from just over $4 billion in 2010 to less than $3.8 billion last year.
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