T-Mobile adds 668,000 subs, lowest number since 2006

T-Mobile USA may be feeling the pinch of not having a nationwide high-speed data network. The carrier reported that it added 668,000 net new customers in the second quarter, bringing its total subscriber base to 31.5 million. However, the number of net new adds is substantially down from the first quarter, when the operator added 981,000 new customers and it's the lowest net add figure the company has had since second-quarter 2006. Technology Business Research analyst Kate Price suspects the reason for the lower net adds could be that T-Mobile is losing customers to AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which both have high-speed data networks. T-Mobile is in the process of building its UMTS data network, but so far has only commercially launched a couple markets. The company's churn also rose slightly to 1.9 percent.  

Here are some other key metrics:

Revenue: Service revenues rose to $4.85 billion in the second quarter, up from $4.57 billion in first quarter and up from $4.20 billion in second quarter 2007. Total revenues were $5.47 billion.

ARPU: Average revenue per user was $52, up from $51 in first quarter and down from $53 in second quarter 2007. Prepaid ARPU was $23, up from $22 in first quarter. Data revenue was $8.60 per customer, up from $8.50 in first quarter.

Churn: Contract churn was 1.9 percent, up from 1.7 percent in first quarter. Blended churn (including contract and prepaid) was 2.7 percent in second quarter, up from 2.6 percent in first quarter. The company says that the higher churn was because the anniversary of the two-year contract was in April.

For more:
- see this press release [1]

Related articles:
With little fanfare, T-Mobile [2] launches 3G in New York
T-Mobile [3] launches UMTS in Las Vegas