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T-Mobile suffered through another tough quarter. The wireless carrier said it lost 318,000 contract customers in Q4, after having already lost 60,000 in Q3 and 117,000 in Q4 of 2009. T-Mobile also reports net customer losses of 23,000 in Q4 of 2010, compared to net additions of 137,000 in Q3.
What makes this even more disappointing for T-Mobile, the world's fourth largest wireless carrier in the U.S., is that its rivals all added subscribers under contract. Sprint was the biggest winner in Q4, adding 1.1 million wireless subscribers, while Verizon added 872,000 and AT&T gained 400,000 (plus another 442,000 including tablets).
T-Mobile did its best to put on a strong front, pointing out that service revenues in the fourth quarter went up nearly 1 percent to $4.69 billion, but couldn't avoid acknowledging the obvious.
"Our service revenues increased year-on-year in the fourth quarter. Data ARPU growth rates are outperforming our main competitors as we leverage our 4G network and provide rich and compelling smartphones and data plans. However, high contract churn and significant contract customer losses in the fourth quarter of 2010 indicate that we still have a fair amount of work ahead of us and that any turnaround will take time. With the ongoing implementation of our challenger strategy we are laying the foundation for improved performance going forward," said Philipp Humm, President and CEO of T-Mobile USA.
T-Mobile's total churn for Q4 was 3.6 percent, compared to 3.4 percent in Q3 and 3.3 percent one year ago.
Comments are closed on this article
Inglburt
February 27, 2011 at 12:04am
I have been with T-mo for about 14 years now. They have a really good customer loyalty program that rewards people for their loyaly. EI, an additional $100 off new phones, and discounted plans. Although I was pretty pissed when you started wanting to charge me for hotspot on my Nexus One.
I have dealt with pretty much all the other big companies, except Sprint, with work phones over the years. I like T-mo's customer service the best, (Verizon the worst) although I know people that have had issues with them.
In my opinion the biggest problem they have with getting/keeping customers (at least in this area) is coverage. That has improved alot in the last few years, but it is still an issue. And maybe to a lesser extent their phone selection. But It seems to me that that is changing for the better fairly rapidly the last year or so.
Just to let you know T-mobile, I'm pulling for you and hope to see you improve your coverage and kick some a$$ in the future.
Queenof1
February 26, 2011 at 2:31pm
2 yrs ago, Tmo was the cheapest service for what I needed. I have 3 lines. I moved from Nextel (Sprint) because they were too high. My contract is up this fall. I will have to see if I will stay with them or not. Family Allowances is awesome since we share minutes and I don't limit my teen's minutes he will use them all up.
Queenof1
February 26, 2011 at 2:30pm
2 yrs ago, Tmo was the cheapest service for what I needed. I have 3 lines. I moved from Nextel (Sprint) because they were too high. My contract is up this fall. I will have to see if I will stay with them or not. Family Allowances is awesome since we share minutes and I don't limit my teen's minutes he will use them all up.
Carbon
February 25, 2011 at 7:41pm
This is Great cuz they will offer existing users like me more deals to stay and lower the prices of the plans more........8)
p.s. That new girl is super hot! Glad they retired Zeta J.
mseyf
February 25, 2011 at 3:04pm
@riopato -
Virgin Mobile - $60/month unlimited everything (on Sprint's network)
Gotta pay for the phone up front, but if you're saving $30 a month, the payback period is pretty short.
whathuhitwasntme
February 25, 2011 at 2:44pm
I have multiple lines with Sprint
they have a better selection of smart phones, they have better network coverage
they have real 4g as compared to the "almost" 4g of at&t and the rest of them(YMMV)
as stated already here as you add lines it gets CHEAPER!
looked at tmobile,versizon and at&flee before I went with sprint 2 years ago when I changed out of my previous contract with nextel none of them had the choices sprint did and honestly they have pretty much given me any reasonable request so far.
Slugbait
February 25, 2011 at 2:30pm
When they lost Catherine Zeta-Jones, I had a feeling something bad would happen. They should have gone with Selma Hayek, but noooOOOOoooo....
sdcat
February 26, 2011 at 11:39am
They shouldn't retair Catherine Zeta-Jones, instead should keep looking for one that could replace her in the future when time comes.
Selma Hayek...she lacks a sharp instant punch for short commercial.
The new girl they found just doesn't give enough trust and responsiblility feeling/appearance in the commercial, sorry nothing against her. I would blame more on the designer and planner.
ajaynsx
February 25, 2011 at 11:01am
When t-mobile started that issue about sending bills with just basic details last year that was the final straw they broke the contract rules, they did not honor my request per the contract of them providing me full detailed pages on the bills. When contracted ended they lost 4 lines to sprint.
nsvander
February 25, 2011 at 10:36am
What did they think would happen when they offered their cutomers the option to go contractless with a $20 a month savings? It was a no brainer for me, lose the contract and save $20 a month on my phone bill? DUH!!! I mean seriously, I have a full unlimited plan for $79.95 a month, the same plan under a 2 contract would have been $99.99.
Hey T-Mobile if you are going to cry about losing contract subscribers dont offer the option to go contractless to your contracted subscribers!!!
I Jedi
February 25, 2011 at 7:02pm
There is no such thing as truly "unlimited" data. Each carrier creates its own policies about how much data a customer gets to consume, or how fast they get to consume that data. The reason T-Mobile has been losing customers is because they don't offer the coolest, up-to-date phones as the rest of the carriers. I can't speak for their coverage, but as far as I know, they're 4th in line from having complete coverage, too, right behind Sprint!
nsvander
February 25, 2011 at 10:21pm
I go through 5000 texts a month, 400-500 minutes, and I dont keep track of my data at all, and the bill is still 79.95 plus taxes.
I Jedi
February 25, 2011 at 11:06pm
Point and case, you don't know how much data you use, and I said nothing about unlimited talk and text. In fact, if you look below this post towards another post I replied to, I even stated that talk was probably well left alone; however, there are some restrictions on even that through some carriers. Point in case, there is no such thing as truly unlimited data. In one way or another, your carrier is going to protect itself from the likes of hoggers.
riopato
February 25, 2011 at 10:19am
Is there any cheaper carrier? Does Sprint have better rates? Who can possibly beat unlimited talk and data with 1000 txt messges for $94 after taxes! Please let me know because I don't get it!
I Jedi
February 25, 2011 at 6:59pm
There is no such thing as "unlimited" data, my friend. For example, your carrier probably doesn't offer unlimited roaming. I'm sure it is set at 300 MB or something close. Why, because it cost your carrier money to allow you to roam on another network. As goes for using your carrier's network, there are limits to that, too. For example, heavy users, who use above the average threshhold of bandwidth, might see their service to the Internet temporary cut off. Why, you might ask? I'm glad you came to this question. The reason lies in the fact that when there are heavy users on the network, they might be impeding the "quality of service" of other customers on the network, too. It's a fair share, ride. They may say "unlimited" data, but the truth is that it is not unlimited, as this is a marketing ploy. Of course, talking is something I truly believe is "unlimited" because carriers are able to handle the demands of customers talking better than they are with customers who use data. Data isn't a new concept to wireless cell phone carriers, but boy has the amount of data being used on these networks "exploded" in recent years.
athlon11
March 01, 2011 at 10:31pm
Incorrect, Verizon's unlimited data plan is truly unlimited and they have free nationwide roaming for data and voice. As long as you are in teh USA you don't pay anything above the $30 for data no matter how much data you use and what network you use it on.
