T-Mobile USA's data service revenues came in at $1.29 billion in the fourth quarter 2010, up 25 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009, yet the operator lost 318,000 postpaid subscribers in the quarter.
Data service revenues jumped to 28 percent of blended ARPU, or $12.80 per subscriber, from 22 percent, or $10.20 per subscriber, the previous year. T-Mobile said 8.2 million customers were using smartphones enabled for the company's UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+ network.
In a statement, CEO Philipp Humm said he was pleased with the carrier's growth in service revenue, data ARPU and T-Mobile's HSPA+ network. "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," he said. "With the ongoing implementation of our challenger strategy, we are laying the foundation for improved performance going forward."
T-Mobile unveiled a turnaround strategy in January that includes reducing churn, increasing sales of cheaper smartphones based on Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android platform and highlighting the company's HSPA+ network, which the company has said will be upgraded to HSPA+ 42 technology covering 140 million POPs by year-end.
For more:
- see this FierceWireless article
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