T-Mobile USA Inc. posted just more than 1 million net subscriber additions during the fourth quarter of 2003, surpassing the 670,000 customers the carrier added during the third quarter of last year and nearly matching its fourth-quarter 2002 results. Analysts were expecting T-Mobile USA to add around 800,000 net customers during the fourth quarter of last year.
For the year, T-Mobile USA added more than 3.2 million subscribers last year, compared with 2.9 million net additions in 2002, ending 2003 with 13.1 million customers, including 11.7 million postpaid subscribers and 1.4 million prepaid customers.
Prepaid customer additions made up a larger percentage of the carrier’s growth with 124,000 net prepaid additions during the fourth quarter of 2003 compared with a loss of 61,000 prepaid customers during the fourth quarter of 2002. Despite the increase in prepaid customers, churn dropped from 3.5 percent during the fourth quarter of 2002 to 3.2 percent last year.