T-Mobile loses more subscribers in Q2, data revenues bright spot

T-Mobile USA announced another quarter of customer defections, saying its total customers served declined by 93,000 in the second quarter compared with 77,000 net customer losses in the first quarter of this year. It's positive spin is that customers using 3G-capable smartphones continued to increase significantly in the second quarter, driving data ARPU (average revenue per user) to account for 25 percent of the company's total ARPU.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile's prepaid customer base attributed to the uptick in customer defections. Prepaid net customer losses, including MVNO customers were 199,000 in the second quarter of 2010, compared with 41,000 net prepaid customer additions in the first quarter of 2010 and 268,000 net prepaid customer additions in the second quarter of 2009. Contract net additions were 106,000 during the quarter.

Data service revenues jumped 18 percent from the second quarter 2009 to $1.17 billion and accounted for $10.90 of the company's $47 total ARPU. T-Mobile reports that 6.5 million subscribers were using 3G-enabled smartphones on its network at the end of the second quarter, which represents a 25 percent increase from the first quarter. T-Mobile said 3G-enabled smartphone customers now account for 19 percent of total.

T-Mobile said it now covers 85 million people with its HSPA+ service in major markets such as New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. HSPA+ smartphones have yet to hit the market but T-Mobile has indicated it will introduce its first HSPA+ this summer.

For more:
- see this release
- check out FierceWireless' Q2 earnings page

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