Overall, T-Mobile reported a profit of $138 million, or 15 cents a share, up from a year-earlier loss of $94 million, or 12 cents a share. T-Mobile reported 61.2 million total customers at the end of the third quarter. Verizon also added customers, gaining 1.3 million in the quarter. With these numbers, Q3 2015 was the 10th straight quarter that T-Mo added more than 1 million customers and the 5th straight quarter with more than 1 million postpaid adds.
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The carrier added 1.085 million branded postpaid customers in the quarter, the fifth quarter in a row where it notched more than 1 million postpaid net adds.
The network expects to be ahead of its coverage target by the end of 2015, and will provide 4G LTE coverage to more than 300 million people, plus more will have access to its Extended Range LTE service, which now covers 175 million people.
Finally, T-Mobile gave an update on its network.
T-Mobile’s outspoken CEO John Legere typically had plenty to say about the results. In a stunt on Monday, T-Mobile flew a skywriting plane above Verizon’s headquarters in Basking Ridge, N.J. urging its rival to stop charging customers for overages.
“We expect T-Mobile to report revenue above consensus but adjusted EBITDA below consensus”, said Michael Bowen, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, in a research report. Churn for that category dropped 18 basis points from a year ago, and the average revenue for those customers was $47.99 during the quarter. T-Mobile likely benefited from a promotion it ran this summer under which two people could get up to 10 GB of LTE data each for $100 per month. Sequentially, the slight decrease in branded postpaid ABPU was primarily due to lower branded postpaid phone ARPU and a decline in EIP billings and lease revenues on a per user basis. Meanwhile, Extended Range LTE is now in 204 markets and is on track to cover more than 350 markets by the end of the year.
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The company on Tuesday raised its 2015 guidance for net additions for the third time this year. In the third quarter of 2015, cash capital expenditures were $1.1 billion, down from $1.2 billion in the second quarter of 2015 and flat compared to $1.1 billion in the third quarter of 2014. T-Mobile has been more aggressive than either AT&T and T-Mobile both in terms of monthly service pricing as well as promotions on new devices. The Company will continue to disclose the aggregate impact from JUMP!
