The "Un-Carrier" has become Un-profitable again. This is despite the fact that they have made huge subscriber gains. T-Mobile added 1.38 million postpaid subscribers and 410,000 prepaid subscribers. This was nearly twice as much as the 785,000 postpaid subscribers which AT&T added over the same quarter, although it is a bit less than Verizon's 1.5 Million added postpaid subscribers.
Even though T-Mo made great gains in new subscribers, they posted a decline in profitability which was a net loss of $0.12 per share. This was much worse than estimates which projected a net profit of $0.03 per share. Here's a quote with more of the details,
That said, these subscriber gains have come at a cost: T-Mobile reported a net loss of $0.12 per share even though the consensus estimate was that the company would post a net profit of $0.03 per share. The carrier also whiffed on revenues, as it reported $7.35 billion on the quarter versus the consensus estimate of $7.45 billion. T-Mobile’s churn was also at 1.6%, which is lower than in previous quarters but still a long way from AT&T and Verizon’s churn rates that were both right around 1% last quarter.
It looks like competition in the wireless industry is good for consumers but seems to be hitting the lower tier carriers pretty hard.
Source: BGR