T-Mobile Continues To Take Share From Competitors

(RTTNews) - T-Mobile US, Inc. (TMUS), the fourth largest U.S. wireless carrier, added 2.1 million net customers in the fourth quarter of 2014, bringing its subscriber base to 55.02 million, as it continued to take market share from its competitors thanks to heavy promotions. T-Mobile had ended the third quarter of 2014 with 52.9 million total subscribers.

In the fourth quarter, T-Mobile added 1.3 million branded postpaid customers, more than 1.0 million of which were phone customers. The fourth quarter branded postpaid net customer additions represent a year-over-year growth of 47%. T-Mobile added 8.3 million net customers during the full year 2014, a robust 89% jump from the full year 2013 total.

"We continued to take share from our competitors and attracted 8.3 million net customers in 2014 who were looking for value, simplicity and transparency," said John Legere, President and CEO of T-Mobile. "Porting ratios have been in our favor vs. the competition for seven consecutive quarters and it looks like we will continue to beat everyone on total postpaid phone adds as well." T-Mobile also reported strong postpaid "porting ratios", which are the number of customers switching to T-Mobile from another carrier over those doing the reverse. T-Mobile logged in positive postpaid porting ratios of 1.4 versus Verizon, 1.8 versus AT&T, Inc. (T), and 2.2 versus Sprint Corp. (S) in the fourth quarter.

It looks like T-Mobile is closing on the gap with its nearest rival Sprint. If T-Mobile continues to add customers at this rate, it is very likely that it will surpass Sprint as the third largest U.S. wireless carrier sometime later this year. However, it is still far away from overtaking No.1 Verizon and No. 2 AT&T.

T-Mobile's efforts to add new customers has been driven by its aggrasive marketing strategy, which has changed some fundamental ways in which the various carriers offer service, such as eliminating monthly contracts and offering no additional cost for international data roaming.

T-Mobile also announced late last year its plan to allow customers to carry over paid-for but unused data for up to a year. Close on the heels of T-Mobile's offer, AT&T said Wednesday that it will allow some customers to roll over unused data from one month to the next.